Legendary hunter training
by quickquantumquasar
Summary: The institute of war has been monitoring Malzahar's progress, and found where he plans to strike first. In the mean time, Beacon Academy is going through a normal school day when a tired, battered woman appears on their doorstep to warn them of an impending war that no one is ready for. Can the Beacon students train hard enough to win such a war? Will include many more characters.
1. A fragment in Remnant

**AN: Hi folks!**

**I do not own League of Legends or RWBY they are owned by Riot Games and Roosterteeth respectively.  
**

**Wonderful, now that that's over with, onto the story that you (supposedly) came here for!**

* * *

(Riven POV)

Riven ran over the landscape with little concern for the scenery. Her face was locked in a state of calm determination, and her feet struck the ground with a steady rhythm that mimicked her breathing. The champion's entire lower body was splattered with mud, and her face, arms, and shoulders were patterned with small scratches to match the more permanent scars.

The tired champion didn't have the mental presence to notice any of these blemishes., but truth be told, she wouldn't have cared about any of them anyway. Her arms and legs had long ago gone numb and they moved without conscious effort. Her mind was foggy due to the extended running, and the only thought she maintained for any length of time was her mantra: _keep running... they have to know... keep running... they have to know..._

Riven was briefly roused from her stupor when a landmark came into view. After two and a half days of constant running, a stripe of green marked the edge of the Emerald Forest and the last major scene change before she reached her destination. Being in unfamilliar territory, she'd been forced to take a winding, zig-zagged, and altogether inefficient route in order to make sure she didn't miss anything. After all this, the confirmation of her route was plenty cause for celebration, but the only reaction that the running woman made was to subconsciously adjust her makeshift leather harness.

Said harness held only two things: her ever-present broken sword and a yellow trinket, which had been tied there with a short piece of string. The trinket was her only connection to the summoners, but she was used to working alone so the isolation was a welcome inprovement. The dense fog of exhaustion returned as Riven went back to her mantra.

_Keep running... they have to know..._

Upon entering the forest, Riven pulled herself back to full alertness so she could watch her surroundings and her footing. A single well-hidden rock could end her run instantly and force her to limp or crawl the rest of the way, which might take a few days.

However, the roots and rocks were hardly the only things that would slow her down in a forest like this. If what the summoners had told her was true, she needed to be constantly on her guard.

Hardly a minute later, that guard was justified when the tired champion came upon her first animate obstacle for some time. A small pack of four beowulves blocked her path. They had locked onto her scent, so they would catch up to the runner if she just kept jogging through the forest, making direct engagement the only option. As the grimm approached her, Riven planned her movements before springing into action.

With one smooth, well practiced motion, the swordsman did a quick clockwise spin and pulled her broken sword from it's loop, bringing the edge down through the first beowulf's neck. As the man-eating wolf fell to the ground, Riven's next opponent approached on her left. She flipped her sword around. In a swift, two-part motion, she delivered a heavy chop to the wolf's side, then leaped forward with a counterclockwise spin that sliced cleanly through both her remaining opponents. The battle (if you could call it that) was over before her first victim hit the ground, and the champion continued on without breaking stride

_I'd better keep my sword out._ Riven thought to herself, _There are far more things in this forest than those wolves._

Her thoughts were soon confirmed when Riven hopped over a particularly large root to find an ursa blocking her path. The large beast seemed to have been sleeping moments before, but now it was pawing towards the delicious human that had woken it up for lunch.

_I might be able to just run past this one though, it's probably slower than those wolves, and it might lose interest in if I just keep going._

It didn't. Riven could hear the grimm's pounding footsteps behind her and quickly decided that it was getting closer. Scanning the forest in front of her, she came up with a quick plan to get rid of her pursuer.

After gauging the beast's general position, Riven leaped into the air and planted her right foot on the trunk of a large tree in front of her. The champion knelt on the bark for the briefest of moments before she pushed off the tree to jump even higher. She quickly turned around, and delivered a vicious overhead slash with a staccato battle cry. The resulting attack carried so much force that the blade cleaved the ursa's entire head in two and pushed the now dead grimm on its back as Riven landed its stomach.

_Darn_ Riven thought as she pushed her self back into a standing position, _I broke my stride. Now that I've stopped, it's gonna be tough getting back into rhythm._

Still panting heavily, she slumped against a tree and watched as the ursa began to disintegrate. Riven briefly forgot her haste and stared, chest heaving, as tiny red and black particles blew away like ashes in the wind.

She had seen things vanish before, (the longer League matches would become impossible if the remains of minions, monsters, and champions weren't teleported away for revival shortly after death) but only with the help of summoner magic that, she could only assume, had no influence here.

_Not yet anyway _Riven reminded herself, _They have to know... keep running..._

Her mantra reestablished, the champion turned back around and resumed her travel. With the exception of a few black flickers in the corners of her vision, Riven's run was peaceful until she reached the cliff. Beacon Academy, the goal of her long journey, stood on top of said cliff.

What stood at the bottom scared her though. It was a voidling, a small four-legged minion of Malzahar. The little creature itself didn't bother Riven so much. She had killed many of them on the fields of justice, and this one fell as easily as the others with a couple quick chops of her sword. No, what worried her was the fact that voidling was here in the first place. It was only a scout, even better, it was a scout that would not be reporting to its master, but its mere existence was a sign of horrible things to come.

_That's why I'm here. They have to know._

After a very arduous climb up the cliff, Riven staggered forward a few steps, breathing heavily. She found a level area on the plateau and reached into her harness, pulling out the trinket and throwing it at the ground in front of her. The tiny trinket immediately began to grow like a plant until the leaves were level with Riven's shoulders (much larger than a normal ward) and a yellow orb appeared just below her head height.

The orb flashed green for a moment, giving Riven the 'all clear' before the familiar blue lights of a teleport spell began swirling around the stem of the ward. Riven gave a weary nod and, still panting from the run, began traipsing towards the academy's closest door. From what she could remember, the whole process of teleporting in the summoning equipment and the summoners themselves would take several minutes. Besides, the broken sword weighed heavy in it's owner's harness.

Limbs aching, Riven examined the area around the door and found that it didn't have a handle, something she was annoyingly used to with Institute security being what it was. There was, however, a small black box on the wall next to it with a small red light and a button. Tiredly assuming that pressing the button would open the door, Riven pressed it and was surprised when a calm but stern female voice came out of the box a couple seconds later.

"Not to be rude, but who are you, and what is that behind you?"

Riven, again, shook herself mentally.

_Of course, they have to have some form of actual security here._

Blaming her tired brain for the oversight, Riven gave the response that the summoners had told her to give to the headmaster. Hopefully, this was either the headmaster or someone who worked for him or her.

"Umm... I'm Riven... I'm a... champion... in the League... of Legends," she said, pausing every couple of words for a lungful of badly-needed air, "and I've set up... a beacon... so that the summoners... of the Institute... of War... who run said league... can warn you... of a serious... upcoming threat... and discuss ways... for Beacon Academy... and the Institute of War... to cooperate... in its elimination." Riven recited before adding:

"I also kinda need food... water... and something... to sleep on... 'cause I just finished... my longest run... in five years... through unfamiliar territory... and right now... I feel like someone... lit me on fire."

_I've fought Brand and Annie._ she added mentally, _I'm one of the few people who knows what that feels like._

The box replied with a sigh. "Come in, I'll be down there in a minute." The light turned green. The door opened to reveal a hallway with doors and lights lining both walls along with a couple of benches. Riven staggered in and the door slid closed behind her. She had only taken a couple steps before she heard hurried footsteps around the corner.

Moments later, a woman rounded the corner and the first thought that popped in Riven's head was the woman's striking similarity to Fiora. She had the same stern no-nonsense look that Fiora always wore when Riven faced her on the fields of justice, she carried herself in the same proud, confident, self important way, and even wore slightly similar clothes to the Demacian champion. On the other hand, this woman had longer blonde hair, and wore a white blouse and a shorter cape that tapered off into arrow shapes.

The woman, who Riven assumed was the one talking to her through the black box, was holding a cup of water (_gimmie gimmie gimmie_) and a thin, blue, rectangular object. She was giving it a look that reminded the tired champion of summoners when they were going through exceedingly annoying paperwork. Riven had just enough time to remind herself that this woman was likely doing something like that due to her arrival before the woman spoke.

"Hello Riven, my name is Glynda Goodwitch" the woman said without looking up from her (assumed) paperwork. She held out the cup of water which Riven quickly took and began draining. "We don't have any rooms prepared, but if you'll give me a minute I can get a bed ready for you and wake you up in time for dinner."

Riven finished the water with a loud gasp and looked up. "I don't really need a bed. I'd be fine sleeping on one of those benches."

Glynda looked up with a face that looked torn between surprise and relief before reverting to forced stoicism. "Go ahead" she said, gesturing to the nearest bench, "it appears that I need to arrange a meeting for some foreign dignitaries anyway."

With that, she brushed passed Riven and began tapping on the glowing rectangle in her hand. Riven would have loved to watch the first meeting of Valoran and Remnant, but tiredness won out over curiosity and instead she flopped on the nearest bench and fell asleep almost instantly.

* * *

(Ozpin POV)

Headmaster Ozpin sat at his desk drinking his usual cup of coffee. For most headmasters, the chance to sit down away from his work is a rare pleasure. The strange thing about this specific headmaster was that he could do almost all of his work with lots of time to spare for anything he pleased. This left him with plenty of opportunities to monitor classes, council students, and dismantle criminal organizations, because that's just how he rolls.

Today, however, he simply sat in his office, drinking coffee and relaxing after a hard day's work. There weren't any imenant crises, and niether the queen nor any of her pawns were vulnerable yet. There was nothing to do. There were no problems to solve. There was only coffee to drink.

Still, Ozpin knew that opportunities like this don't last, and was simply enjoing it while it lasted. So when his desk lit up with a holographic notification, the headmaster was only briefly annoyed that his moment had ended. He simply sighed and placed his coffee on the table and opened the message from Glynda.

**A strange, exhausted woman appeared at the northeast entrance and placed a beacon in the courtyard. She claimed to be a champion in some sort of league and said that the managers want to meet with you about a threat approaching the school.**

_Is it Friday already?_ Ozpin thought sarcastically in his head as he typed a quick response. **If her claims are valid, escort them to my office. I'll meet you at the bottom of the elevator.**

Once the message was sent, the headmaster grabbed his scroll and mug, put his cane under his arm (just in case), and headed to the elevator. While the lift did the opposite of what its name implied, Ozpin brought up the feed from the northeast security cameras on his scroll to gauge his visitors.

The first thing that caught his eye was a yellow plant-like pole in the courtyard surrounded by a glowing blue circle on the ground. There were also points of light floating in the air with their own smaller circles under them. As he watched, the lights gravitated towards five equidistant points on the circle and a few short bolts of electricity arced between them. Glynda was standing nearby, alternating between watching the light show out of fascination and watching the sky to see what kind of aircraft would require such an elaborate beacon.

Seeing no progress and no need for redundant over watch, Ozpin glanced over the other feeds until he found what he was looking for. In the corner of the FOV of the door monitor was a very dirty white-haired woman sleeping on one of the hall benches with a broken black sword tied loosely to her back.

_There goes my prospect of an early, redundant interview, _the headmaster thought_, but it was a long shot. The managers that Glynda mentioned will certainly be better sources anyways._

The lift came to a stop and Ozpin stepped out, returning his gaze to the feed of the strange beacon. The five points on the circle had become columns that reached approximately 50 feet in the air, and strange lines that appeared to have been etched into the ground occasionally pulsed with more blue light. After a minute or two of waiting, a small whirlwind started up around the circle.

A couple seconds later, several bright flashes of light went off that temporarily blinded the camera and made Ozpin frown at his scroll. When the lights dimmed, the scene was rather different. The blue lines were still there, as was the yellow plant-pole, but in place of the columns; there were five hooded figures of varying height that held blue orbs in front of them. The figures waved their hands around the orbs and a few more lines appeared in the ground around the perimeter of the circle. One last pulse of blue light surged through the lines, the orbs dimmed, and the figures lowered their arms.

After a moment of silence, the figures cheered. There were high fives and handshakes all around, and a few even shared hugs until one of the travelers pointed at Glynda and they turned to face her.

"Hello." the huntress said as though the light show that had taken place in front of her was entirely normal, "Welcome to Beacon Academy. I assume you are the ones that Ms. Riven was talking about?"

"Yes" the middle traveler replied, "We are the summoners of the League of Legends and Institute of war. We are here to discuss a grave threat that has been pointed at Beacon Academy. I apologize for the delay; the teleportation process is very tricky when preformed over such a long distance in so many dimensions. Accuracy is key in such things, and even with a beacon, it takes time to..."

"Stop talking her ear off over teleportation." interrupted another summoner to the right of center. "We have more important topics to discuss. Like, are you the headmistress?"

Glynda, having dealt with far more annoying people due to her line of work, replied calmly. "No. The headmaster is waiting for you inside. I notified him as soon as I got the message from Ms. Riven."

"How is Riven by the way?" a female summoner on the edge of the group said, "We didn't get a chance to check up on her after she placed the ward. Did you get her some food and water?"

"She's currently sleeping in the hallway just inside." Glynda replied, gesturing to the door. "I gave her some water and I was planning on waking her up for dinner while you all are meeting."

"Thank you for your hospitality" said the center summoner. "We do need to ensure the health and safety of our champions, and it is heartening to know you have taken care of her for us. Let's hope that the rest of our interactions are similarly co-operative." At this, the summoner gave a sharp glare to one of his colleagues who responded by rolling his eyes.

"One time Kobe. I mess up one time, and suddenly I'm perma-banned from social interactions." The summoner said in an undertone that was clearly heard by everybody (including the security camera).

"I just want this to go smoothly Phreak. You're still allowed to talk, just not in a way that makes everyone hate you." Kobe said in a calm, serious tone that didn't keep the grin from his face. "That applies to you too Jatt."

"What about me?" piped up the only female summoner.

"Nika, you're the one who would be handling this talking stuff in the first place if I hadn't taken it by force. Just let Jatt, Riv, Phreak, and I handle all of the business stuff and you can say anything you want."

"Deal. Let's meet this headmaster."

Glynda agreed, and the group followed her up to the door. Glynda raised her keycard to open the door, but Ozpin opened it with a few quick taps on his scroll. He could just barely see Glynda mouth "showoff" at the camera before she walked inside, the summoners following right behind in various fashions.

Some of the summoners whispered to each other, some stared at the towers a moment before following the others, and one ran over to Riven was sleeping. After turning her over so she was lying on her stomach, he his hands flat a few inches above her back and muttered something the camera couldn't pick up. A small shower of green lights fell from his hands and the cuts on the champion's skin closed. The summoner gave her a brief once over before nodding and returning to the group.

_Strange_. Normal _green dust can't do that and he didn't use any transistors to control the effects. It could be some clever aura-based manipulation, or something else entirely._

Having lost security coverage of the visitors, Ozpin put away his scroll and pulled his cane out from under his arm. A short minute of waiting later and Glynda rounded the corner with the summoners in semi-orderly tow.

"I assume you got all that." she said, pulling out her riding crop and slapping the elevator call button with it. Ozpin gave her a slight nod before directing his attention to the visitors who were looking at him with varying anticipation.

"Good afternoon summoners, welcome to Beacon. I am Headmaster Ozpin." The few summoners that weren't paying attention before looked straight at him at those words. "I believe you wanted to speak with me?"

"Yes," Phreak replied, "but I thought we'd be meeting somewhere more… official-looking." He gestured vaguely around at the empty hallway to emphasize his point.

"We will be." Ozpin said, "We can hold a meeting in my office shortly. In the meantime though, could I have your names please?"

"Which ones?" piped up Nika, "Our real names or our summoner tags?"

"Whichever you prefer." Ozpin replied with a grin.

* * *

(Ruby pov)

At first, the hallways were silent as usual. Anyone standing there would have been able to hear a fly buzzing around a light fixture halfway across the building. With only the slow, distant drone of the occasional professor to give away the presence of other humans, it was pure peace and quiet. Then the dinner bell buzzed. After that, there was a slow noise buildup inside the grimm studies classroom. The sound grew and grew until it peaked and the door flew open. What followed was an explosion of chatter, yelling, and general noise as student poured out of the tiny opening.

"Finally! I thought that would never end!" yelled Yang, the first person to push their way through the door, "Seriously, how is it even possible to talk about King Taijitu venom for an hour and a half straight and still have enough to assign us reading homework over!"

The rest of her team filed out behind her as she said this, and her sister was all too eager to turn it into a conversation. "I know right? I mean, I can understand him telling us about what the venom does to you, how much it injects, and how to treat it," Ruby said in her usual rapid-fire style, "but then he went into all that stuff about how it was made and the chemical makeup and the density and viscosity and who knows what else!"

Blake rolled her eyes. "I'm going to say the people who paid attention." she deadpanned. The two sisters looked at their teammate, then each other, looking for signs of comprehension.

Weiss sighed. "She's saying that anyone who paid attention would know what else Professor Port said." the Schnee heiress said when it was clear that neither sister understood.

"And just because I can see you're dying to know," she added in her most sarcastic voice, "the rest of the talk was on the history of the venom's discovery and research."

Yang gave her usual signal for 'I couldn't care less if I tried' and Ruby snickered. However, Blake stood by with her hand on her chin and brow furrowed. This was rather normal for the aloof and introverted member of the team, but her teammates gave her curious looks anyways.

"What is it Blake?" questioned the fearless leader.

Blake stood silent for a moment before responding. "While I am glad that at least half the team pays attention to those lectures," (Weiss preened in her best rich kid impression in the background as she said this) "I do have to agree with Yang. What possible use would that information hold?" The team looked at each other with thoughtful expressions on their faces until they heard a familiar voice behind them.

"Keeping you from eating dinner on time perhaps?" The four girls turned to see team JNPR standing behind them with a grinning Pyrrha at the front. "Seriously, if you keep standing there we'll be the last ones in line."

Realization of their hunger was punctuated by several of RWBYs' stomachs growling simultaneously. "To the food court!" Ruby yelled, and her team raced off, leaving a small cloud of dust and a laughing, stumbling JNPR in their wake.

Once they had gotten their various meals, (a process that included Yang forcefully pulling Ruby away from the dessert cart for the fifth time that week) RWBY and JNPR sat down at their usual table near the door, and Jaune began their usual banter.

"I still can't believe that happened." he said with a chicken leg in his hand, "The timing was just too perfect."

"Hey!" Ruby replied holding her first of twelve cookies, "We were hungry okay?"

"Pyrrha was like 'hurry up', and then you guys just went BWOOOOOOOOOllllgh."

"Reeeaaly hungry."

Jaune's response was cut short by someone tapping him on the shoulder. Everyone at the table looked up (whether from the tapping or the sudden lull in conversation) to see a tired-looking white-haired woman standing behind him. She was holding a half-eaten biscuit in one hand, and a tray of food in her other.

"Can I sit here?"

"Sure!" Ruby responded before anyone else had a chance to comment. She motioned for JNPR to scoot over (which Nora did for them by pushing the others to the side and patting the now empty bench next to her), and the woman sat down at the end beside Nora and across from Ruby.

As soon as she sat down, the woman started shoveling food in her mouth like she hadn't eaten in days. The RWBYJNPR crew sat in a still silence watching her for a few seconds before Yang decided to break it.

"Sooooo, I'm Yang..." She motioned for her friends to follow her lead.

"I'm Weiss"

"Blake"

"And I'm Ruby!" Ruby finished, glad that she had a conversation that she knew how to handle. "The fearless leader of team RWBY! And this is..." she said, gesturing at the other side of the table.

"My name's Pyrrha" Pyrrha started in her usual friendly tone.

"Ren"

"NORA!"

"And I'm Jaune. I lead team JNPR."

The woman glanced around the table as each name was said, shoving more food in her mouth than one would think possible, only stopping to take an occasional gulp of water. She nodded lazily each time someone said their name and went right back to her dinner afterwards.

"Sooooooo..." Yang pried, a bit unnerved by the massive amount of vanishing cuisine, "What's YOUR name?". The stranger put her water down and swallowed the food in her mouth before responding.

"I'm Riven, I'm a champion in the League of Legends, and..." she trailed off a moment as though just remembering something, "I probably should stop there." she finished. Everyone else at the table frowned in disappointment (Nora's far more audible than anyone else's), and Ruby was the first to voice the teams' curiosity.

"League of what?" She said before Weiss cut her off.

"Ruby, she's trying to eat." the heiress said as though she were correcting a small child, "Besides, I don't think she can tell us any more than that."

She was cut off by Riven raising her hand and loudly swallowing her mashed potatoes. "Actually, keep me talking. It'll keep me from eating too fast." Ruby's face lit up, and she began almost quivering with excitement; she was so eager to talk to this mysterious person.

_She called herself a champion! Does that mean she's a professional fighter? Like a huntress but even cooler? And she said she was in the League of... Legends... I think? I didn't quite catch that bit. But if so then THAT'S EVEN COOLER! Does that mean that there's more fighters like her? Come to think of it, why haven't I ever heard of this league before? I'm up to date on everything that has to do with fighting. Maybe they've just formed and she's like one of the founders or something? That mean's she's probably SUPER cool. Maybe she's recruiting! Am I a good enough fighter? Probably not, but she came to Beacon, so she'd be here to recruit students, right? I wonder how she fights. I didn't see her weapon when she sat down. Maybe she just fights hand-to-hand like Ren does sometimes?_

Ruby was so caught up in the possibilities that she almost missed Riven's follow-up statement. "Also, I can talk about the League, just not why they sent me here. Mostly because I don't really know myself."

Weiss's face donned a shocked look (probably due to being wrong twice in a row) while Riven continued as though she were talking to herself. "I mean, I already delivered the message and set up the beacon, are they just gonna send me back once I'm recovered?"

Ruby couldn't contain the barrage of questions any longer, and so began speed-talking like she always did when she was excited. "Recovered from what? Wait, you delivered a message? What was it? You said you were from the League of Legends right? What is that? What's a champion? Does that mean you're, like, a professional fighter? Where's your weapon? Is it cool?"

Yang put her hand over her sister's mouth to try and stem the infinite flow of questions before they scared Riven away. Normally she just let her sister ramble on, but this stranger didn't look like she had the patience or the energy to deal with it calmly. Riven took another large gulp of water before answering.

"Umm, yeah. I'm a champion in the League of Legends," and that was all that she got out before Ruby pulled her sister's hand away to ask more questions.

"And what is that? If you're..."

A small explosion interrupted Ruby's interruption. All of team JNPR, along with Blake and Weiss, immediately hid under the table to escape the literal and verbal firestorm. "RUBY! SHE'S GETTING TO IT!"

At the moment, Riven wasn't getting to anything, what with her shock at the nearby explosion jerking her out of her drowsy stupor. She simply stared at the burning blonde while clutching a piece of ham (now lightly roasted) in her right hand.

Yang glared down at Ruby before realizing that she had silenced nearly half of the cafeteria with her outburst. The brawler nervously sat down, scratching her head while her friends casually returned to their seats. The silence was interrupted by Riven slamming her empty cup on the table. The entire table turned to her as she picked up her tray and stood.

"Actually, I'm done eating and really tired so I think I'll just go back to sleep now."

Ruby felt like someone had cancelled her birthday.

_NO! You can't go yet. I have too many questions still!_

"Wait!" she yelled, dashing in front of Riven with her best pleading puppy dog face. "Can't you stay? I'm sorry about Yang; she just blows up like that a lot. But she'll be nice from now on! Please? I still wanna talk to you!"

Riven sighed. "Sorry... Ruby right?" Ruby nodded enthusiastically.

_YES! She remembered my name! Maybe she'll recommend me for this cool League! Am I getting ahead of myself? Yang would probably say so. I guess it really depends on_-

"Yeah, I need to get some more sleep." Riven interrupted Ruby's rapid thoughts. "I haven't gotten any for the last three days."

"Okay... Fine." Ruby sighed. She looked down at her shoes in a moment of defeat before another idea sent her back into ramble mode. "Wait, does that mean you aren't sleeping well or that you've gotten literally no sleep for the last three days? Wow, that's a lot. Is that really possible?"

"Ruby," This time it was Blake that cut off her rambling. "either way, she needs to sleep now."

"Right," Ruby said, embarrassedly twiddling her fingers, "can we talk later then?"

_Please say yes. There's so much more I need to know about! There's you, this league thing, what a champion is, what you're doing here, what's going on, what weapon you use..._

Riven gave a small smile as she began to walk away. "That all depends on the men upstairs." With that, she walked out of the cafeteria and Ruby sat back down.

"I hope we get to talk again. I mean, she's a CHAMPION! That mean's she's extra-special cool right?"

"I dunno sis," Yang replied, back in her normal, playful mood, "Pyrrha here is a champion of Mistral and she's nothin' special."

"You do know I heard that right?" Pyrrha said without looking up from her potatoes.

"It woulda been wasted if you didn't." Yang shot back with a playful wink.

Pyrrha chucked at that, glad to return to normal, fun banter. She opened her mouth to reply, but Blake's musings interrupted her.

"I wonder what she meant by 'the men upstairs'."

* * *

(3rd POV)

The headmaster's office was silent for three and a half seconds (as noted by the steadily ticking clock behind the desk), though it felt much longer. The deputy headmistress was standing in the corner a few feet away, and the Headmaster himself was leaning forward in his chair with his hand folded under his chin in a thoughtful pose. The summoners were seated in a semicircle in front of his desk, anxiously awaiting his response to the bombshell they had just dropped.

Ozpin heaved a great sigh, and sat back in his chair before saying: "So what you're telling me is that this school of highly skilled hunters-in-training needs to prepare for a war?"

Rivington replied after a moment's silence. "It's not quite as pressing as we may have made it sound. The Institute of War has plenty of practice delaying and suppressing wars. It's the entire reason for the League's existence after all, but we have other methods as well."

Jatt continued the explanation. "We have been stunting the Void's progress for a long time now. We have a lot of influence over the actions of some of their agents, but that is mostly due to the fact that one of them is a champion in the League, as are three of his pawns. Unfortunately, he doesn't need us anymore, and he'll most likely bail on us once he realizes we're on to him. We can't use much of that influence right now without losing all the power we have over him."

Phreak picked up the briefing from there. "One way or another, there's going to be an army of monsters attacking this school. We're doing everything we can to slow them down, but we can't stop them entirely. You need to be ready."

Ozpin raised an eyebrow. "What makes you think we're not? This is a school for hunters. These children may be young, but even the freshmen have already been through almost a full semester of monster hunting."

Phreak held up his palms in a calmly defensive manner. "It's entirely possible that they are up to the challenge, but I doubt it." Nikasaur shot him a warning look, but Phreak merely shrugged and kept going. "We know just how powerful some kids can be," Ozpin heard one of the summoners mutter something that sounded like 'clammy hand mumu', "but these are real monsters created specifically to consume the world."

Ozpin cracked a grin at that and Glynda rolled her eyes to punctuate her next statement. "That's exactly what these children have been trained to hunt."

The summoners looked at each other with surprise and confusion evident on their faces. Eventually, Jatt broke the silence. "I guess we'll have to see them in action before we can say for sure, but" he said, looking pointedly at the headmaster with a serious expression, "you know your students better than we do. You also know that taking out a few monsters in a skirmish is one thing, but holding back a siege is another. These kids are being trained to hunt monsters, but do you honestly believe they can win a war?"

At this, the headmaster looked down at his desk and began scrolling through the student files. "I've been trying to make sure they never have to." he said quietly.

The room was silent for a full minute while Ozpin opened up Ruby's recommendation letter from Qrow and read through it despite having memorized it months ago. He stopped at the postscript and went over the last sentence several times.

Right then, Zyrene spoke up. "Well now they have to. Let's get to the point and start discussing how they will." Everyone in the office turned to glare at him at this except Ozpin, who merely smiled and agreed.

"Yes, let's."

* * *

(Riven POV)

Riven was dead tired when she exited the dining hall, but she was still awake enough to realize that she didn't have a room to sleep in, and that another nap on the bench would most likely result in a back that would be somehow even more sore. Luckily for her, she happened to meet Glynda on her way out.

"There you are Riven." She said as though she were checking chores off a list. "I've set up a room for you in the guest dorms which are that way" Glynda pointed her thumb to the left "at the end of the road on your right. You are in room #308."

Riven nodded her head in understanding and took the keycard that the deputy headmistress handed her. "You should try and sleep tonight. I'll be coming by your room to take you to a meeting at 8:30 tomorrow morning. What you do afterwards will be decided at that meeting."

_8:30_ Riven made the mental note _I get to sleep until 8:30. Whatever that means here._

She tiredly walked to the door and out into the courtyard. Once Riven finally got to her dorm room, it took her a full minute to figure out how to use the card to open the door. Eventually she figured out that she had threaded the wrong side of the card through the slit in the box next to the door, but that was only after several tries and a lot of colorful language that only a soldier would have in their vocabulary.

As soon as she saw the bed, Riven felt the 72 hours of exertion weighing on her like bars of lead tied to her back. The soreness was burning her muscles like she was swimming through magma, but she forced herself to take a shower and stretch first.

Normally, Riven wasn't the type to prioritize appearance over... anything really, but the only cleaning she had received since she started her 600 mile run was the healing spell that she assumed one of the summoners cast on her while she was asleep. While her cuts and bruises were gone, there was still dried blood splattered on her arms and clothes, some dirt that she hadn't managed to brush off before going into the cafeteria, and a lingering smell that reminded Riven too much of her days as an exile.

The champion hadn't had the room or reason to bring any sort of supplies with her on her journey, let alone towels and soap. Luckily thou, the guest room was stocked with those things to begin with. It took Riven a minute to figure out which soaps she was supposed to use, seeing as she didn't use soap at all if she didn't have to. Once that was taken care of, she stripped and stepped into the shower, all the while musing on her current predicament.

_Okay, they wouldn't call me to a meeting just to send me back to Valoran, so that means they have another job for me here. _Riven thought while she covered her hands in soap_. Or maybe they just want me to say something or be part of an example of something. Either way, it looks like I'm staying for a bit._

At this thought, Riven sighed and slid down the wall of the shower until she was sitting with her knees to her chin while water rained down on her head.

At her core, Riven was an extreme introvert, and her years as an exile did nothing to change this. Being in a densely populated facility for any extended period of time made her very uncomfortable. In the League she could retreat to her room, the gardens, or the training grounds whenever she needed to be by herself. But here, there were always going to be people around no matter where she went.

_At least it's not completely different, I'm still surrounded by fighters by the looks of it. Maybe they'll understand._

Head swimming from exhaustion, Riven finished her shower without any more interruptions. After a few minutes of rather painful stretches, she dried herself off and slipped on the thin cloth shirt and pants that had been left on the bed for her. She had barely crawled in the bed before she lost herself to unconsciousness.

* * *

**AN: So that's the first chapter! Tell me if you thought it was good/bad, paced too fast/too slow, too much dialogue/too little, etc. Also, yes, I am planning to use real people for the summoners, (mostly casters, pro players/streamers, and Riot staff) so please tell me if any of them seem OOC because I don't really have their personalities pinned down. I know this is a lot to ask this tiny number of readers and I'll understand if you just don't care enough. But I do want this to be as good a story as possible and it won't be as good if I make all the judgment calls. Sorry, but until I get a beta reader, you are going to have to fill the part.**


	2. The men upstairs

AN: Welcome to the sort-of anticipated second chapter of Legendary Training! (half-hearted cheering in the distance)

WOW that took a long time. I hope that you guys (and gal, statistically, there's at least one of you) read my profile about how all of my stories have a really long update time, but seriously. Did I really post the last chapter last SEPTEMBER? Yeah, even for me, that's a really long update time.

So this chapter is short, but that is for a good reason (read the ending AN for details) and it's really part 1 of 3. The other two will be uploaded one week and two weeks from now respectively.

Now for the disclaimers: I play League of Legends and I watch RWBY, but alas, I am but a mere fan, and thus, have no direct influence over Riot Games or Roosterteeth.

BEGIN STORY

* * *

(Glynda POV)

Glynda Goodwitch prided herself on her attentiveness and her devotion to work. When she was given a job, she saw to it that the job was completed in a timely and efficient manner. Where others gave up or got distracted, Glynda pushed through with a single-minded determination that seemed to spread to those around her.

That is why the position she was in the morning after meeting the summoners for the first time was so strange. She was not pouring over papers or schedules, nor was she berating students or cleaning up after their messes. Glynda Goodwitch was bent over, face first, on her desk, in her office, sound asleep.

Luckily for her, it was still far too early for any students to have any motivation to visit, and she didn't schedule appointments this early in the morning. Had this happened during normal office hours, the every surface in the school would be pasted with pictures of the deputy headmistress drooling on her scroll. Most likely, they would have captions like:

**Was Prof. Goodwitch assassinated or did she fall asleep on the job? Both seem equally probable.**

or,

**It is rumored that once every 2000 years, an ancient, powerful curse activates and causes the eternal watcher of Beacon Academy to fall into an eternal sleep. **or some other snarky comment.

Usually, Glynda would not have allowed this to happen. Under normal circumstances, she scheduled everything around a strenuous, but still plausible, workload and avoided all-nighters at all costs. But these were not normal circumstances.

The previous night, Ozpin agreed to accept the summoner's aid in preparing for the upcoming war. The summoners described their enemy, which they simply called 'the void', as a swarm of powerful beings intent on consuming anything they came upon.

* * *

(3rd POV, six hours earlier)

"We have faced many monsters in the past." Prof. Port said confidently, "The entire purpose of this prestigious academy is to train the great hunters and huntresses of the next generation. They will be the shining beacons of society, hence the name, sworn to protect those who cannot protect themselves from the evil Grimm that plague our world."

"I don't think you understand." Jatt said calmly, "The Void isn't a bunch of wild monsters that eat people. It's a place between dimensions with an entirely different type of life inhabiting it. We'll need more than a few students and some spare troops to take this on."

A brief flash of surprise showed on Ozpin's face momentarily in the pause that followed. "Different in what ways?" He asked, obvious curiosity glinting in his eyes.

"Well..." Kobe paused as though searching for the right words. "The void creatures are a lot more... chaotic... than normal life forms. You see, the Void's such a weird place that no-one's ever been able to actually go there without going completely insane, which is why we don't know much about it. We don't know exactly how things form there, but the environment is far harsher. Because of this, creatures of the void adapt and grow much more quickly, and thus, are capable of far more than any other life forms we have ever observed."

Rivington continued the thought "Where other organisms are forced to use tools or magic, the creatures of the void develop their own bodies to suit their needs. Some of them are even capable of evolving within a single generation. Basically, you can't come up with any kind of counter-strategy, 'cause by the time you think it through, they've already changed it up."

"Anyway, the Void doesn't attack mindlessly. It expands its influence in a world and when it feels ready, it consumes and assimilates anything that might be useful to it."

The professors looked shocked. Professor Goodwitch was twisting her riding crop behind her back, Prof. Port's knuckles were white from gripping the arms of his chair, and Prof. Oobleck had frozen mid-sip. They already knew of one type of world-consuming force. The idea of facing two at once was rather panic-inducingly terrifying.

Perhaps in a hasty attempt to calm down the Beacon staff, Kobe tried to explain the less terrifying aspects of their enemy. "Like Jatt said, the Void sort of exists between dimensions. It's hard to understand completely, but imagine it as a sort of sewer system for the multiverse. Everything that flows out of dimensions ends up stuck there. Life forms grew out of that, and now they're trying to use their rather strange position to take over absolutely everything." As it turns out, there are very few aspects of the Void that aren't terrifying.

"The Void will grow stronger with each world it conquers, so we need to shut this plan down before it's empire grows too big. Luckily, we were able to dissectq enough of their plan to find the first place they intend to strike."

"And that led you here where you intend to stop the takeover before it starts." Professor Ozpin finished. His tone was flat and he had his chin perched on interlocked fingers. "How long do we have until the attack?"

Jatt thought for a moment before responding. "Well, you didn't know anything about the Void until we got here right?" Ozpin shook his head. "Good. That means our estimates are probably still accurate. With no interference, the Void will be ready to assault Beacon in about four months."

Ozpin raised an eyebrow. "No interference?"

"Well, it's hard to know what kind of options we'll have for delaying the Void this far in advance without any info on what they're doing and what we have to fight with." Phreak said, scratching his elbow as he talked, "It's even harder to tell how many of those options will be good. Right now, it's easiest to figure out what would happen if we didn't do anything and work from there."

"So if we just sat here and ignored them, we'd have four months before they make their first move?" Glynda asked, "That seems rather generous."

Ozpin shook his head, but Kobe butted in before the headmaster could speak. "Not exactly. We've got four months until the big attack, that's true. That doesn't mean they're just waiting on the other side, twiddling their… whatever they have instead of thumbs. The Void already has some denizens here, and more are going to come as time goes on."

"You see, they don't just make an army and flood any random realm. That's not the Void's style. They prefer to be more subtle, sneaking into the world first and adapting to its environment."

"So we need to be on the hunt for infiltrators hmm?" Port said as he cast a suspicious eye over the summoners, "Be careful who you trust and all that?"

Phreak ignored the 'eyebrow of suspicion' Prof. Port was giving him. "Not to my knowledge, and that doesn't seem like something they would do. Still, I wouldn't be surprised if there did turn out to be some sort of doppelgänger monster out there."

This time, Nika picked up the metaphorical clarification ball. "If it sounds like we're being intentionally vague, it's because we are. Yes, the Void is really, really weird, and we don't know much about it. There's probably going to be some things out there that will surprise us, but overall, the Void does seem to follow a couple predictable patterns. 'Consume and adapt' is one of the biggies."

"There's gonna be some creepy crawlies out there tearing through anything they can find to get a bit stronger, but it's going to take a while for them to change to fit the world they're attacking. There's going to be quite a few skirmishes before they start the real invasion, and trust me, you'll know when they do."

There was a few seconds of silence in the office as the professors considered this. Or, more accurately, Ozpin considered it and the others waited for him to figure it out. As much as they tried to keep up, there was simply too much new information for the other professors to understand the situation. Instead, Port and Oobleck decided to wait at the side until they were relevant to the conversation again.

While Glynda was still struggling to comprehend all that the summoners were saying, Ozpin was still pumping them for more information. "How do they get stronger?"

"Like she said," Phreak answered, pointing a thumb towards Nikasaur, "they consume and adapt. Creatures of the void will hunt whatever living things happen to be in the area. Then they take on a few of the properties and attributes of their victims, growing stronger from it."

"Eventually, they adapt so much that they're better suited for the environment than the natives. That's when they attack and consume the area. If we want to survive, we have to stop them before they get to that point."

That last statement left the office with an intense feeling of doom that was not helping the moods of the professors. Learning about a new enemy takes time, and learning how to defeat it takes even longer. Being told that this enemy could easily wipe them out in a matter of months scared the teachers to the point where they couldn't think properly anymore. Ozpin leaned forward a few degrees over his desk and closed his eyes, doing his best to consider the problem from every angle. With so many unknowns and such high stakes, this was not an easy task.

For various reasons, no one dared speak a word. The other professors knew not to interrupt the headmaster when he was thinking, and the summoners that usually broke awkward silences were way too nervous to try this time. A slew of heartbeats later, he spoke up again.

"Is there any alternative?"

…silence…

"…What are you saying?" someone muttered, asking what everyone in the office wanted to know.

Ozpin's hands slid down his face, revealing closed eyes and a neutral expression. "I am saying that since I formed this school," he said calmly, folding his hands over his scroll, "I have always prayed that my students would never have to fight a war while under my care. I am saying that they are not prepared to deal with conflict of this magnitude. I am saying that while they may be fighters, hunters are not soldiers."

The eldest professor sat up again and fixed his calm gaze on the group in front of him. "I'm saying that I would rather find any alternative to this method of defense."

Apparently, this was a response the summoners weren't prepared for, as none of their faces betrayed any shreds confidence. Several of them sent worried glances to each other, and the rest resorted to fiddling with the seams in their robes to avoid meeting anyone's gaze. There was silence in the office again while the summoners considered this. After a short minute of soft muttering and panicked, spastic hand motions, Kobe summed up their response in a single word.

"…Crap…"

Phreak looked up at the headmaster again to explain. "We thought about doing this on our own, but there's no way the Institute alone can stop this threat. There's too much we don't know about."

"Even if we did," Kobe said, voice still in a grim octave, "It would leave us open to an assault on Runterra. The Void would take over there, get even stronger, and come steamroll us here. We're going to need a LOT of support from Beacon, and preferably a bit from some other sources too."

Professor Port stepped forward, obviously eager to dismiss the grim mood that had fallen over the office. His face was full of confidence, and, had they been visible, his eyes would be sparkling with pride. "Then our path is obvious." He boomed, surprising most of the room with his volume, "We must stand united against our common foe! Your champions and our hunters will fight side by side, and with our powers combined, our strength will be even greater than the sum of our parts!"

The plump professor threw his fist in the air in a gesture of triumph, his rounded middle shaking slightly. The room fell silent yet again, though in a much more light-hearted manner as the summoners tried not to laugh.

Prof. Goodwich was pinching her nose in exasperation again. "Port, please stop embarrassing yourself."

"Now Glynda," Ozpin chided, "Peter may have a point."

Now that they had calmed down, the summoners were calmly turning the points over in their heads. They hadn't mentioned it yet due to lack of time, but after holding high ranks in the League of Legends, these summoners were masters of strategy. They knew, more than anything, how to find and capitalize on the most obscure opportunities. Still, there wasn't much for them to work with, and their problem was intimidating. That wouldn't stop them from trying though.

"… Greater than the sum of our parts…" echoed one,

"Standing united. Not as easy as it sounds…" muttered another,

"Is there some synergy that I'm missing?" questioned yet another, until the summoners were all off in their own worlds. Prof. Port sat back down to get out of the path of one particularly avid pacer as he muttered to himself like the rest.

"…No… Can't be that…"

"What if we…. No… 'Cause we'd have to… Yeah, no…"

"…Nah, they'd have to get in there first…"

It continued like this for several minutes, with Ozpin joining in on the fun, leaning back in his office chair and giving the giant gears above him a thousand-yard stare. Finally, long after Prof. Oobleck finished the last of his coffee, Phreak raised a finger as though he had just gotten an idea. "Maybe… Yeah, that could work! Maybe our champions could speed up your students' training. We'll turn them into hyper-carries. Doing tons of damage and taking down the tankiest Cho' Gath!"

The office went silent for what felt like the hundredth time. The only sound was that of a light sigh from one of the summoners. "You know what?" Phreak said after a few seconds, "Ignore those last two sentences." This prompted a couple of eye rolls from his colleagues, but there was a murmured assent floating through their number.

"Beacon is not the greatest hunting academy merely because of its age." Professor Goodwitch said, a hint of impatience in her voice, "We only accept the best and brightest, and we are already training them as fast as we can."

"But", Rivington ventured carefully, "Not as fast as we can."

Nikasuar decided it was up to her to explain her colleagues again before Goodwitch killed someone with that glare. She chose to speak to the headmaster's questioning gaze rather than his deputy's deadly one. "The League of Legends is a collection of the most powerful and skilled fighters in all of Runeterra. If there's anyone in our realm who can help your students, it'll be them. I'm pretty sure they can give your students a few tips and tricks at the very least."

The idea was initially met with a healthy dose of skepticism. Sure, the summoners spoke highly of their champions, but Beacon was the very pinnacle of huntsman training. How could they be sure their legends would be enough? Still, it was solid enough that Ozpin (along with Glynda, professor Port, and doctor Oobleck) spent most of the night going over possible student/champion partnerships.

Unfortunately, no matter how hard they tried, the pairings were iffy at best due to neither side having any experience with the other.

"I mean, Sion's got an axe…"

"Yeah. Sion's also a magically resurrected zombie war machine. Not exactly the best example of self-preservation on the battlefield."

Trying to learn about over a hundred champions in one night was too much for the professors, so they were left blindly throwing out suggestions and guessing at what could work. Eventually, Prof. Oobleck suggested they try a different approach.

"We could try throwing both groups into a forest and pairing them up there."

"How would that put them in pairs?"

Oobleck looked to Ozpin with a silent question. The latter grinned and explained the idea. "The first person you make eye-contact with upon landing is your partner for the rest of the year."

"… You can't be serious…"

"No, I'm not." He said, standing up and grabbing his cane, "But none of us can be so while we are this tired. Let's all get some rest and figure this out some other time."

Eventually, the group agreed to meet at 8:00 the next morning.

It was at this time that the teachers realized something rather distressing. They still had classes to plan for the next day. When the three professors expressed their concern to the headmaster, he deliberated the point for a moment before telling them: "Prepare whichever of your classes are the furthest behind. Leave the rest to me."

Having worked with the man far too long to bother questioning him on what he planned to do, the teachers traipsed back to their offices in order to try and complete one last bit of work. At least, Oobleck and Port did. Glynda did her best to ignore the tiredness that weighed on her shoulders and decided that she would finish her work like she always did.

Glynda had finished preparing two classes and was about to start working on a third when Ozpin walked into her office. The instant her boss said: "Go to sleep", the sum of all the day's exhaustion hit Glynda with so much metaphorical force that she fell face first onto her desk. The deputy was asleep before Ozpin reached the door.

* * *

(3rd POV)

So Glynda was sleeping steadily, dreaming about whining students, when a loud ping woke her instantly. Heart suddenly pounding, her eyes shot open and she sat up so fast that she almost fell over. After regaining her balance, she picked up her scroll and read the message from Ozpin.

**Wake up. We need to settle the schedule before we meet with the summoners.**

_Smart aleck. _Glynda thought as she stood up_, At least Port and Oobleck suffered the same fate._

Once she had properly shaken herself awake, the deputy headed over to her boss's office to find him sitting at his desk with his fingertips in their default triangular position. The dark bags under his eyes suggested that the professor (as usual) didn't follow his own orders and had stayed up all night estimating this new threat and how to react to it. The eyes themselves, however, showed that his mind was just as sharp and active as usual. This was no doubt due to the ever-whirring coffee machine in his desk.

"Good morning Glynda."

"Good morning Oz." Glynda replied, doing her best to push trough the thick haze of tiredness that loomed over her. "Where are piggy and the gingerbread man?"

Ozpin raised an eyebrow at that statement. Usually she reserved her colleagues' nicknames for when they were being extremely annoying. Such petty belittling was usually beneath someone like Glynda.

_But, _Ozpin thought_, sleep deprivation changes people_.

"They should be on their way. I think they actually fell asleep in their beds strangely enough."

Ozpin had just finished that sentence when the door opened to reveal Dr. Oobleck walking in. His hair was pointing in even more directions than usual, and he was still wearing what Glynda had learned three years ago (don't ask how) were his pajamas. The tired professor was holding his usual coffee mug, and took a sip from it as he entered the room at an unusually slow pace. It was strange to see the usually hyper-speed lecturer walk like a normal person, but he was at least standing fully upright. The same could not be said for the second person to walk in.

Professor Port stumbled into the room a couple minutes later looking even worse for wear than Oobleck. He was wearing his usual suit, but it had obviously been donned in a very rushed manner. The tie was crooked and all of the buttons on his coat were undone. It looked like he had attempted to comb his hair and mustache into their normal style, but gave up halfway through, leaving the left half far wilder and bushier than the right. Upon making it through the door, the professor made a bee-line to the nearest chair and collapsed on it.

"Good morning to you two as well" Ozpin said with natural energy that none of his visitors shared. "We need to sort out today's schedule."

"I thought you said you would handle it." Glynda interrupted. Again, this was not something she would usually do, but the good deputy was even more impatient than usual this morning. "We just had to get some work done last night to make sure our classes didn't fall too far behind."

"I will handle it," Ozpin replied while ignoring Glynda's unusual irritability, "but I need to know what progress you made, and you need to understand the schedule I put out."

Dr. Oobleck recognized the tension and immediately relayed his progress. "I have finished grading and planning for Tactics Through History, but I stopped there as instructed."

Prof. Port caught on and volunteered his side. "I finally finished grading all of those Grimm II exams, so I can spend today's class going over it. Maybe I could lighten the mood with..."

"No." Prof. Goodwich said immediately, "Do not try to 'lighten the mood' with one of your incredibly boring and derailing stories." Glynda glared at the ground as everyone stared at her.

"Did you... have a late night Glynda?" Oobleck asked, bringing his hand up to adjust his glasses. Glynda gave a frustrated huff before finishing the list of progress.

"I finished up two classes and was going to finish a third when Oz put me to sleep."

The headmaster smiled at that. "And now we can see why." The room was silent for a moment as Glynda directed her glare at Ozpin, who continued unfazed.

"Thank you all for working so late into the night. I know that recent events have been less than relaxing, and I'm quite sure that the situation will only get worse from here on out. I said that I would sort out the schedule, and I will." The headmaster stood and walked up to the large window behind his chair, mind whirring far faster than the slowly spinning gears above them.

"We will have to cancel most of today's classes. Thus, we need something else to fill in the time. In order to minimize scheduling complications, we will shift all of the classes that aren't canceled to take place this morning so that all of the students are free for the introduction of the League of Legends."

"What?" all three teachers said in various tones before shouting over each other.

"I thought we didn't plan anything!"

"Did you talk to the summoners about this?"

"What are we going to introduce? We only have one champion here!"

Ozpin calmly raised a hand for silence. The protests sputtered out one by one leaving an exasperated Prof. Port, a doubtful Dr. Oobleck, an even more annoyed Prof. Goodwitch. The headmaster lowered his hand to its usual thoughtful position under his chin before explaining.

"There are many changes approaching Beacon." he said, still facing the window, "Some of them are good, many of them are bad, and all of them are far too important for the students to be kept in the dark. It would be both wrong and virtually impossible. Even now I'm pretty sure that most of the school is at least aware of Ms. Riven's presence here, and the summoners won't stay secret for long, especially if we want to show them the skill of our pupils."

Glynda's expression softened somewhat, and Oobleck's face changed from doubt to curiosity while Port sat up with renewed interest.

"I suggest that we extend the usual dueling period to cover the rest of the day, and preface it with a basic introduction of our new friends. Perhaps they can bring by a few more legends to test against the students"

Port's face donned a worried look as he cleared his throat. "So, what do you plan to tell the students? Surely you aren't going to try and explain this whole scenario."

Ozpin waited a moment before replying, and took a sip of coffee to help collect his thoughts. "I plan to tell them that the summoners are representatives of a visiting institution and that we are discussing the possibility of mutually beneficial relations in the future."

The room was silent as the tired staff dissected the meaning of those words. It took the duration of the headmaster's preparatory breath for the professors to understand what he had said. Then, like a gunshot, the meaning became clear.

He was going to present the League as a visiting school or team to hide their true mission from the very students that were going to be at its center. The war itself would not be revealed until very late into the project, and even then, very few of the trainees would know the full scope of it. This idea frustrated Glynda to the point of outrage.

_He's simply going to lie to them? These summoners are the key to this school's survival, we are going to push the students to their limits with this training, after which they are still going to have to fight for their lives, but he's not going to tell them?_

Glynda's mouth was way too slow to convey all of this verbally, so the inner monologue was translated into a single loud word. "WHAT?"

Ozpin turned to look straight at her unflinchingly, "Glynda, these students are children."

"Children that will be fighting in a WAR! They need to know what's happening if they're going to pull through this!"

"But they are still children. They don't know the pain of battle..."

"But they will!" Glynda shouted, slamming her riding crop on the desk, "I know you want to preserve their delicate minds and I've heard all your lectures on the importance of childhood and gradual adjustment. But if we are seriously considering putting our students on a true battlefield in a few months' time, then we don't have that as an option any more! We CAN'T afford to waste time with calm encouragement! We CAN'T afford to give them a clear conscience! We CAN'T afford to ease them into the stress that they'll go through! Oz, we CAN'T AFFORD TO PRESERVE INNOCENCE any more! If what the summoners said about this army is true..."

Ozpin slammed his hand on the table, causing some of his coffee to spill out onto the floor. He shouted his next words with uncharacteristic volume.

"If what the summoners said is true then telling them the truth is EVEN WORSE!" There was anger clearly evident on the normally calm man's face, and a deadly silence fell over the room again. Prof. Port, now fully awake, was shrinking into his chair, and Dr. Oobleck was several steps back, trying to take nervous sips from his long empty mug. Glynda's anger lessened slightly, but she still leveled a challenging glare at the headmaster, whose face had settled back into its blank, controlled expression.

"Glynda..." he began calmly, "No matter what the circumstances are, these are children. Yes, they have made the decision to fight monsters, but many of them have yet to be fully disillusioned to the horrors that lie in combat. We normally allow them several years to grow accustomed to the lifestyle they are moving towards." He sat down calmly as he said this, pulling his coffee mug back to sit between the two professors. Then, as though he were offering Prof. Goodwitch his seat on a bus, Ozpin turned the conversation over to his deputy with a piercing question. "Think Glynda. What do you truly believe would happen if we told the students what the rest of the semester will entail?"

The headmistress's anger flared and died when the meaning of his words hit her.

_Of course, they would panic. They've been brought up to a difficult level of training, but they did so through a gradual increase in hardship. If we were to introduce them to such a stressful situation so quickly, they would shut down. Almost all of them would go into denial, and many would try to run from the problem one way or another._

Prof. Goodwich slumped into the chair directly opposite Prof. Port, who was leaning forward with his head in his hands. Silence reigned in the headmaster's office for three ticks of the massive clock before Ozpin spoke up.

"Change of plans." he said as he looked at his three colleagues, "Your classes will take place directly after lunch, and the sparring session will last the rest of the afternoon. The students can have the morning off."

Ozpin stood and began walking towards the door, coffee in hand. "I'll send the summoners breakfast and tell them that I will meet with them before lunch. In the mean time, you three should take a nap. You're not yourselves."

* * *

**AN: So, this chapter taking most of a year is due to a couple things. **

**Firstly, this chapter just took forever to get right. It still isn't IMO, but taking another two months to get it 2% better did not pass the priority test. It isn't as noticable in this one, but next week's chapter took forever to expand properly.**

**Secondly, I lost interest for a bit. You guys probably don't care much, but this does have the side effect of making a couple new stories. **

**Thirdly, FF wasn't working with me. I don't know why, but for some reason it wasn't letting me upload documents for a while. Even now after finding a workaround, I still can't upload documents that are too long.**

**Irregardlessly, I have stories for you to read. Chapter three should be up next Friday, and chapter four will be up the Friday after that. I won't make any promises, but at that point I might actually have something else to put out. I created quite the backlog of random writing during that break.**

**All in all, thank you for reading all of that, and please tell me what you think of my writing. I'll stop wasting your time now. Till next week! **


	3. Va-lore-an

**AN: So the weekly schedule seems to be working for now. Thanks for the quick feedback guys, I'm glad that so many people are willing to stick with the story after such a long and unnanounced hiatus. Many cookies for you. :)**

**I love the LOLs in League of Legends, and regale the riveting reflections of RWBY. However, dispite that amazing and appealing alliterative additive, they belong to Riot Games and Rooster Teeth, not me.**

* * *

(Riven POV)

After a night of strange dreams, Riven woke to a polite knock on the door and the expected soreness filling her limbs and back. The Exile stared at the unfamiliar ceiling in confusion, doing her best to ignore the pain, before remembering the past few days. Her memory of the trip was a bit patchy from the continuous exertion, and some parts of her run were completely forgotten. Still, Riven did at least remember her conversation with the students.

_I wonder if I can talk to them again. _she thought groggily_, They were fun..._

She had stretched as much as her tired body would let her last night, but it seemed that hadn't been enough. From head to toe, each and every part of the champion felt as if it had been glued to the bed with Singed's Mega-Adhesive, and Riven wanted nothing more than to simply lay entirely still for the next few hours. Sadly, that wasn't an option.

A second knock. It took a while for Riven to remind herself of the impending meeting. It took even longer for her summon the willpower to move from the muscle-freezing trap that was her mattress. Riven steeled and readied herself as one would before jumping into a fight, then sat up and turned her body in one smooth motion so that her legs were hanging over the side of her bed. That simple movement caused the champion to wince in pain as her tired body screamed in protest, though long years of Noxian military training kept it at that.

A slow glance across the room revealed a clock that read 9:08 a.m.. Riven was confused at this. She wasn't sure how similar the timekeeping systems of Valoran and Remnant were, but she was still rather certain that 9:08 was later than 8:30.

_Why didn't they wake me up at 8:30? Maybe a change of plans?_

Unsteadily rising to her feet, Riven resisted the urge to fall back into the nice, soft bed as she made her way to the door. Each step was a challenge of discipline, and all the while her nails were digging into her palms to numb the dull shots of pain arcing through her legs.

The third knock rang through the room right as she turned the lock.

Riven had expected to see the stern face of Prof. Goodwitch glaring back at her when she opened the door. Instead, she was surprised when a calm, grey-haired man met her gaze.

"Good morning." he said, "I am Headmaster Ozpin. I don't believe that we met yesterday."

Riven's stomach growled audibly when she realized the headmaster was holding a half-full cup of coffee that reminded her far too much of the breakfast she was missing. "Um, yeah" Riven responded dully, ignoring the embarrassing complaints from her digestive system, "I'm Riven, and no. We didn't."

"Well then. It's good to finally meet you." Ozpin said, inclining his head slightly, "I guess that we can also assume no one was able to properly deliver my thanks to you for your work over the past few days. I know more than most just how dangerous the untamed lands can be, and I can't imagine it was very easy for you to trek such a distance in such a short time."

Fresh exhaustion found its way into Riven's limbs at his words, and she tried very hard to not let it show on her face. The 3-day run had been very difficult. Sure, the summoners had teleported her to Remnant, but due to the inconstancies of inter-dimensional travel, her objective could be 500 miles away from where she landed. Then there was the fact that monsters were the only known element of the vague, winding, and inaccurate path. All these factors put together meant that the summoners had needed to send a very capable solo fighter with both the speed and endurance to travel quickly while still being ready to fight at any moment.

Normally, the Institute of War would take more time to form a more solid plan and select the optimal insertion team, but this mission was very rushed. The threat was coming far too quickly for the normal prep time, so they'd been forced to grab the closest champion who fit the part, and Riven was it. She'd gone through brutal military training in Noxus, and had spent over a year fending for herself in the wilderness as an exile. She also had such great endurance that she was one of the few champions that didn't rely on mana or energy from the summoners in order to use her abilities on the Fields of Justice. Riven was the perfect champion for the job.

There were few others in Valoran that could handle this kind of feat, as the journey was arduous enough to wear down even The Exile's powerful spirit. Even after a startlingly large meal and a full night's sleep, she still hadn't fully recovered.

"That is why I believe you should know that there has been a change of plans." Riven snapped out of her moment of reflection to return her attention to the headmaster. "The meeting has been postponed until 11:30 a.m., at which we will finalize exactly what you will be doing here. In the mean time, I suggest that you have some breakfast. I can hardly imagine a single meal making up for three days of constant exertion."

_No sir_, Riven thought to herself, _It certainly did not._

"The summoners are having breakfast in this dorm's lounge just down the hall if you would like to join them."

Riven was halfway through nodding when a strange feeling struck her. It was an unfamiliar sense of need, a feeling that pushed her into what she did next.

"Actually sir," Riven was talking before she even knew what she wanted to say, "could I... eat in the main dining hall again? I, uh... told a friend there that I would talk to them again." Ozpin raised a curious eyebrow, so she quickly added: "As long as it's okay with you of course."

The obvious worry on the champion's mind was that the Ozpin would ask about this new friend and she would have to explain herself. As illogical as this anxiety was, Riven hated justifying herself to people, especially now that she didn't technically have any kind of superior anymore. It didn't help that the subject in question was awkward enough already, and the Exile didn't need to give the summoners anything more to laugh at her for.

_Not after the infamous 'Battle Bunny' incident anyways._

However, instead of interrogating her on this new friend, the headmaster simply gave her a light smile and a nod. Either he already knew, or he wasn't interested in finding out.

"Go ahead." he said, "It's good to see that you're adjusting so quickly." Riven heaved a mental sigh of relief and took a step forward before she noticed the metallic object that the headmaster was handing her. "Could you take this with you?" he asked, "It's a loaner scroll. The summoners each have one as well, and they are the main method of communication here at Beacon besides the intercom."

Riven took the scroll and turned it over in her hands. When she found it was two separate pieces, she pulled the sides apart. Between the two sheets of metal, there materialized a pale blue surface with several differently patterned squares.

_I'll give it a closer look later. _She thought as she wedged the new device in the back of her harness.

"In the mean time," Prof. Ozpin spoke and Riven looked back up at him, "why don't you go spend some time with your new friend? I'm sure you have a lot to talk about." Again, the headmaster gave her a small smile, almost as though he knew exactly what the topics of their discussion would be.

Riven was about to go when she found what felt so strange about the conversation. "Wait, I thought professor Goodwitch was going to wake me up. What happened to her?"

Ozpin grinned. "She is currently taking a nap, along with the rest of the faculty I assume. We had a rather late night you see."

It was just then that Riven noticed how tired the headmaster looked. He seemed so alert and his conversation so lucid that she didn't notice the dark shadows under his eyes or the now-empty coffee mug. Even with the obvious signs of sleep deprivation, this man still carried himself with supreme confidence and an aura of command and control that Riven hadn't seen since her days in the army.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I have to phone a friend." With that he turned and walked away. After a few taps on his scroll, Riven heard a series of tones before Ozpin spoke again. "Hello James, I'd like to ask a favor of you..."

Deciding that she might as well go and eat, Riven walked out of the guest dorm and down to the dining hall. As she plodded down the courtyard, it struck her how strange she was acting. She had talked to those eight students for less than ten minutes. And yet Riven had become so attached, she wanted to fulfill a half-hearted promise that she didn't even really make.

Usually, Riven hated talking to new people. Throughout most of her life, The Exile hadn't needed to make friends. This mostly came from her days as a commander. Anyone she needed to work with was either:

A) a subordinate who would follow her orders without question.

B) a commanding officer who didn't take kindly to attempted small talk.

This condition wasn't changed in her time of exile. She had been on her own most of the time, as any human contact out on the road was a potential danger to a fugitive such as herself. On the rare occasions when she did have to talk to someone, Riven was sure to keep the conversation quick and left as soon as possible before anyone found out who she was.

Even after becoming a champion, with her diplomatic immunity protecting her from most threats, she had mostly kept to herself. Everyone she met was trying to either kill her, or apologize for the aforementioned. Of these people, Riven had made a couple friends, but she relied on them to save her from having to interact with the other champions.

Now, however, Riven was going out of her way to talk to some people to whom she had said about ten words in total. She had simply dropped on the bench from out of nowhere, stuffed her face with a substantial amount of food, and left. And something had happened there that made Riven want to do it again.

_Why? Why did I tell them I'd come back? And why am I going through with it?_

Maybe it was just that she was, once again, an outcast. Riven wasn't affiliated with anyone here, just like her days as an exile. Sure, that was oversimplifying it a bit, but it did inspire the same feeling. The difference here was that she wasn't thrown out or pushed away by everyone she met.

Here, no one knew her. Here, she had a fresh start.

"…a fresh start…" Even mumbled aloud, the words felt surreal. After all of the tragedy, betrayal, and political mayhem Riven had been through, starting again anywhere was impossible. Any ideas of the sort were confined to idle daydreams on the long hikes from village to village. The Exile never gave daydreams much thought.

There simply wasn't anywhere she could go. Demacia was right out. It didn't matter that she had betrayed her homeland and was now on the run from multiple assassins. Riven was still considered a Noxian, and according to Demacia: "once a Noxian, always a Noxian."

She had about as much of a chance there as in Ionia. They may have technically forgiven her now, but Riven had just burned down half of the Ionian countryside at the time along with everyone who lived there. However kind and patient the people might be, she couldn't blame them for holding a grudge for something like that.

Piltover may have a soft spot for the downtrodden, but they weren't going to go to all the necessary work to house someone like Riven, and Zaun wouldn't let a Noxian traitor inside its borders no matter how much you bribed the patrolman. No one in places like Mount Targon or the Freljord cared about the plight of a random exile, Bandle City didn't tend to let humans immigrate in the first place, and Bilgewater was just a bad place to be.

Out of options, Riven was forced to wander the continent alone. She'd stop by a village every now and then, doing odd jobs to restock on supplies. But she could never stay in one place too long, lest she fall prey to one of her many hunters. Eventually, the Exile went to the only place with the agenda and political power to house her: the League of Legends.

Still, while the Institute gave her diplomatic immunity, it couldn't save her from her past. Many champions and summoners made it perfectly clear how unhappy they were about her decision to continue living. Her first few weeks were mostly spent hiding from innumerable death threats now that she had made her identity and location publicly known. The Institute of War was easily powerful enough to keep her safe (Riven was hardly the most dangerous or hated entity they protected), but that still wasn't enough to put her mind at ease when enemies seemed to pop out of the woodwork to remind her of her sins.

Here though, The Exile wasn't an exile. She wasn't an enemy, an outsider, or an untouchable. Here she was a person just like everyone else, and she had been accepted instantly by a group of friends before they even knew who she was. They hadn't done it begrudgingly or halfheartedly either, instead choosing to ignore her past in an almost childlike manner. Had she been more awake, Riven would have probably become a part of their friendly banter. She could have laughed, joked, and forgotten, if only for a moment, just how different they were.

_I could be anyone… Choose my own path… Leave doubt behind…_

At that last thought, the broken blade on her back pulsed with energy, the faded runes glowing a dull green for a few moments. Riven could even feel the shards of her blade in a fuzzy etherial way, almost as though they were whispering at her from the distant hills of Ionia. A strange comfort filled the champion as her thoughts calmed and her focus returned.

Riven needed to find these students again and rejoin their conversation. She needed to, if only to confirm that it hadn't been a dream.

She was pulled out of her thoughts when she reached the dining hall, apparently having subconsciously followed the smell of pancakes and sausage. After pausing a brief moment to take in the realization of just how hungry she was, Riven picked up a tray and walked around the central food area, gathering a hearty breakfast.

10lb tray in hand, The Exile walked over to the same table she had sat at before and found the same two teams talking to each other animatedly. Ruby jumped up in excitement upon noticing her approach.

"You came back!" she yelled as she attempted to run at the champion. Attempted, because she was stopped when Yang grabbed her signature red cape.

"Hey Riven!" the blonde said with a smile as she pulled the overly-enthusiastic leader back to the table, "Some of us didn't think we'd ever see you again." Yang turned to her partner with a meaningful glance. Blake responded by rolling her eyes.

"Sorry for doubting you," she said to Riven, ignoring the various faces and signals Yang was giving her, "but you didn't seem too confident in the grace of 'the men upstairs'."

Yang ignored her teammate's response and cut off Riven before she could define exactly which men she had been referring to. "So. Are you gonna sit down with us or just stand there looking awkward?"

Riven grinned and sat down on the end next to Pyrrha, but Ruby was the first to speak. "Umm... Soooooo..." she said with a quizzical look on her face, "YEAH! What are you doing here?" At this, the girl donned a look of horror and clamped her hand over her mouth. "I'm sorry, that came out wrong. I mean-"

"It's fine; I understood you." Riven said quickly, trying to simultaneously calm Ruby down and contain her laughter at the girl's excitement.

The rest of the students had no such qualms, with everyone except Blake and Ren laughing openly. Ruby's face went as red as her name implied, but the cacophony barely lasted long enough for Yang to give the girl a light punch on the shoulder before petering out into an assortment of suppressed giggles.

After the teams calmed down, Riven did her best to answer Ruby's question. "Well... I originally came here to deliver a message," she said, a light feeling of uncertainty growing steadily in the back of her mind, "but that's done and I'm still here. Honestly, I have no idea what they're keeping me for. I've already been away from the Institute for three whole days."

"Yeah," Yang said, obviously confused, "you keep mentioning that Institute, and you said something about a league yester-DOWN RUBY!"

Too late. The caped girl was already standing on her seat, clenched fists quivering with anticipation. "The League of Legends! YES! What is that? It sounds SO COOL!"

_Apparently she doesn't care about drawing attention to us_. Riven thought as she glanced around nervously. Dispite her self-reliance and independent spirit, she really didn't like being the center of attention. Thankfully, no one looked their direction for more than a couple seconds before going back to their meal. "Um, yeah..." Riven said, pulling her attention back to the two teams, "This is gonna require a lot of context. Are you ready for a short history lecture?"

For the briefest moment, there was silence as everyone at the table processed Riven's words. That moment passed as quickly as it came, and all of the students reacted simultaneously.

Yang groaned and slammed her head on the table with a bang that made the a couple glasses fall over. Jaune did the inverse, simply leaning back until he fell to the floor with a yelp. Ren, Blake and Pyrrha employed various face-palming techniques, and Nora shouted something unintelligible. On the other hand, Weiss sat up straight and looked at Riven with renewed interest while Ruby nodded with enthusiasm.

Aside from Yang's incoherent mumbling, Riven didn't hear any direct objections, and just assumed that the teams were being overdramatic. Thus, she took a deep breath and began talking.

"Right. The Institute of War and the League of Legends... where to start... I guess with the Rune Wars is as good a place as any." Yang sat bolt upright all of the sudden. The glare she sent Blake suggested that she had either been pinched or kicked under the table, though the black-haired girl showed no signs of mischief. "So, the Rune Wars..." Riven started, before remembering a critical point, "ended while I was in exile, so most of this is hearsay."

"Heresy?" Nora Jumped up in her seat and stood up straight, pointing an objecting finger at Riven. "You're evil!"

Ren sighed at this and leaned over. The boisterous redhead gave and "Oooohh!" of understanding as he whispered something in her ear.

"Anyway," Riven continued unperturbed, "The Rune Wars were ...terrible." A rather morbid mood settled around the table at that last mood. Despite their various personalities, all of the students quickly adopted the look a soldier wore when standing at attention. They all sat straight-backed with arms down, either in their laps or on the table, and their faces were all serious and attentive.

_That was sudden. I hope they're ready for this though, because terrible is probably the only word that sums up the Rune Wars_.

"Pretty much every city-state in Valoran, my uh, homeland," she added when the students gave her weird looks at the word, "was involved, but the main contenders were Noxus, my native country, and Demacia."

"No one's really sure what started it, but pretty much everyone was dragged in soon enough. They were all trying to justify their roles by declaring themselves paragons of virtue, Demacia especially. They were trumpeting their statements of justice to the heavens: 'We're the light of this world! We crush dirty Noxians! Blah, blah, blah'." Riven shook her head in disgust while a couple of the other girls giggled at ther impression. "That was pretty accurate by the way. In reality though, Noxus was the only one who was right."

"No one's ever justified in starting or perpetuating outright war." Blake said, interrupting Riven's monologue. "Nothing is ever worth putting that many lives on the line, no matter whose they are."

There was finality in Blake's words that surprised everyone at the table, to the point that no one at the table spoke for a few seconds afterwards. The certainty with which she said such an absolute statement told Riven volumes about the type of person that sat in front of her.

_Well, front and to the left._

"Well, in the end, we were right anyway." Riven said bluntly, "You see, in Noxus, there aren't classes or ranks, at least outside the military. Everything revolves around strength as a impartial decider of status. If you were stronger than someone, you had power over them. If someone hurts or steals from you, then you simply aren't strong enough to defend yourself and your belongings."

"That's horrible!" Pyrrha shouted, her hand over her mouth. The other students wore similar expressions of horror.

"Yeah." Jaune said in a more subdued tone, "How can you live in a place like that?"

"It's not actually as bad as it sounds. " Riven said, trying to find a way to describe Noxus that wouldn't make it sound awful, "Despite its... cruel methods, Noxus is probably the only place in Valoran where everything is fair." The table stared at Riven again, silently asking for clarification. "In Noxus, it doesn't matter whether you're male or female, rich or poor, young or old. If you're strong enough to handle a responsibility, you got the power to control others. It's not nice, but it's undeniably fair."

"That sounds a lot like anarchy." Weiss said, tilting her head slightly, "How can there be any sort of justice in that kind of system?"

Again, Riven just shrugged at this. _They're taking this a lot better than most. Then again, most people I told about this hated Noxus anyway_. "There isn't really, but it's not about that. Noxus decided that impartial fairness is better than the false justice that Demacia keeps bragging about."

"But any form of justice, biased or not, is better than total anarchy."

"I guess it's sort of an organized anarchy."

When she received assorted strange looks from the table, Riven took a second to re-think what she had just said. "Okay, that didn't make any sense. Let me try to explain."

"By the Noxian definition, strength is more than muscle power or sword skill. It also refers to tactical thinking and, most of all, influence. There are lots of powerful Noxians who can barely hold a sword. They still hold high ranks because people trust them enough to follow." There was a slight edge to Riven's words in that last phrase that wasn't entirely coincidental.

_I hate people like that. They don't have any true Noxian strength, but they still make it to the top. Take, I don't know… SWAIN for instance._

The students took a moment to consider Riven's words before Pyrrha spoke up. "Not every good fighter is a tactician though. I've seen a lot of fighters in tournaments who didn't have much of a strategy other than 'hit them in the face'. What happens when they get promoted?"

Riven's face twisted from anger to disgust when she remembered her old drill sergeant. "Those kinds of fighters are usually a sort of... middle-class management that lead by example. Sometimes, if they're REALLY strong, they can be elite agents or bodyguards that serve directly under High Command, but that doesn't happen very often."

"But you said anyone who was strong could lead." Ren pointed out, "What makes these people different?"

"They didn't really do very much commanding because you can't get anywhere by just oppressing people weaker than you. I mean, you could, but no one dumb enough to do that ever got promoted." Riven replied, before remembering a quote from an old comrade. "No one can rise to the top on their strength alone. Weaklings are still useful, and if you press them too hard, they usually find a way to turn on you."

It was at this point that Riven realized she was supposed to be telling them about the Rune Wars, not singing the praises of her homeland.

_Back on topic Riven. Stop being a poster child and focus on the conversation for once._

"So yeah, that's Noxus for you." she said, leaning back and opening her arms, "There weren't any brutes at the very top, but strength still meant everything. And that was all that mattered in the Rune Wars. There wasn't room to live a life of peace. If you weren't a soldier, you made weapons and supplies for the soldiers."

The students were surprised at Riven's harsh statements, and even Yang was paying attention. "We tore each other apart. The city-states... I mean... I was a commander at the time. Everything we built was designed to tear someone else down. If you weren't a militant state, you were conquered by one."

_And here's where we get to the painful part. _Riven thought, as the memories started flooding in for real now,_ Keep it together. You can still do this._

"Eventually, we went too far. The weapons we used just completely destroyed the environment. We made the land... dead." Riven said, the pain of memory now very evident in her voice, "There's no better way to describe it. Even after the wars were over, nothing grew on the battlefields. Nothing. All that's left there now are charred, black wastelands. It's awful, just thinking about them... The damage we did..."

Riven was gone now, the world slowly fading into half-focused images from her past. The bloodstained walls of a Demacian stronghold, the uncountable bodies lying on the scarred plains. "And that's not even counting all the people... Hundreds killed every day... Families shattered... Orphaned children left to die in the streets... Left to DIE... all because we were so caught up in killing each other."

Riven pulled herself back to reality when she felt Pyrrha's hand on her shoulder. Sitting up, she saw that she had gone way too far with the details, especially considering her audience. Jaune and Pyrrha were giving her very worried looks, Ren had his head down with eyes closed in a state of quiet mourning, and even Nora was at a loss for words. Weiss and Blake both stared off into the distance, lost in thought, and Ruby was sitting in Yang's arms with tears streaking down her face.

Taking a deep breath to try and stabilize herself, Riven regained everyone's attention to continue her story. There were tears still making their way to her jawline, but The Exile's face was one of focus and determination now. "Words can't describe how... horrible it was. But... eventually, a group of powerful mages came together to put a stop to it."

The sudden change of expression in the Exile and hardened attitude with which she said that last statement gradually sobered up her audience. A couple students wiped tears from their eyes and Ruby shuffled awkwardly off her sister's lap, still sniffling. At the word 'mages', Ren and Weiss gave Riven confused looks, but she ignored them and kept going.

"They called themselves 'summoners' and they formed the Institute of War to calm down each of the city-states. Now, they were strong, yes, but they couldn't stop the conflict on their own. Remember, it was the whole of Runterra at war, not just Noxus and Demacia."

Riven was now leaning forward slightly, using various ambiguous hand gestures to punctuate her statements while the students listened intently. "The politics was too complicated to just stop it immediately. So instead, the summoners offered an alternative. By their rules, all conflict would be settled in a sort of... battle-by-the-best format. Instead of sending hundreds of men to die, each side would submit their greatest warriors. These warriors were called, or I guess we ARE called, champions. We fought each other in the place of the huge armies and war machines. Aided by the summoners' magic, these champions fight on predetermined battlegrounds called the Fields of Justice, and the winning team wins the war."

The two teams had calmed down somewhat, and Weiss was even nodding in understanding. "They reduced the armies down to a smaller scale and isolated the battles. By doing so, they separated the average citizen from the war." she said with a hand on her chin, "That's actually quite clever."

Ruby's face lit up again, this time in admiration. "Wow, the champions really ARE heroes. They sacrifice themselves to keep others safe. Kind of like hunters and huntresses!" Riven paused at that last statement.

_...I'll ask later._ She decided, and continued her story. "Actually, the summoners eventually developed some sort of spell that resurrects the champions after they die. It's pretty cool, even if it does take an eternity to set up."

The students stared at each other yet again. "No way," Yang said, "I'm calling bull on that one. How do they do that?"

Riven only grinned at this. "I don't know." she replied, shrugging her shoulders, "Maybe you can get one of them to explain it to you if you have an afternoon free"

"Anyway, the Institute got a LOT of complaints from the city-states that the matches weren't fair. The Fields of Justice weren't well suited to some of the fighters, and some of the champions were just dominating the others."

_Ahhh the early days... No junglers, no items, no meta... Just me, my sword, and a dead Singed._

"Because of this," Riven continued, "the Institute made a large set of rules for the matches and turned them into more or less a sport. Champions were revived multiple times a match, and more objectives and layers of strategy were added to... 'Increase strategic diversity' as they said."

A couple of the students raised an eyebrow, but none of them said anything. "Eventually, the matches became such a big part of the Institute that it was split off into a separate organization: the League of Legends." Riven said.

_I'll just give them the official description. It's easier than coming up with one myself, and I also don't have to be lectured by Nika later._

"The League of Legends serves two main purposes. Its main job is to settle conflict between the city-states, but it also does it in a way that satisfies the deep-seeded bloodlust of the people. After that big of a war, you can't expect people to suddenly find their 'inner peace'. Even the innocent civilians had worked day and night to produce weapons and supplies for the soldiers. People just weren't ready for a peaceful lifestyle yet. They're still not if the recent ratings are anything to go by."

Most of the students were some combination of confused and underwhelmed by this description. Yang specifically had propped her head up on her palm in a universal stance of apathy. "So the League of Legends that Ruby's been losing sleep over is just a glorified combat circus?"

Riven frowned at this. _That's not really a fair way to put it._

"There's more to it than that" She said, "Remember, the main purpose of this 'show' is to be an impartial decider for major political issues. There's a whole department in the Institute devoted to making sure the matches aren't rigged or unfair. The fights are also entirely real. Real tactics, strategy, and combat skills, not just us showing off." Yang looked unimpressed, so Riven moved on. "It also serves the purpose of removing dangerous figures from society."

The raised eyebrows were raised even further, and Riven did her best to explain. "Valoran is a weird place. Even apart from the human tanks produced by the Rune Wars, there are a LOT of other forces at play that I can't even begin to comprehend. Even now they're finding new champions to add to the roster around once a month. When there aren't any war heroes to add to the list, there's usually some ancient being we've offended, or some horrible... thing... from the Shadow Isles or the Void..." Riven paused a moment as she remembered the reason she was here in the first place. As much as she would have liked to go off on that tangent as well, the summoners hadn't let her know who she could tell about the mission besides the headmaster.

Shaking herself internally, Riven returned to her original point. "There's new champions added once a month or so, and they just keep getting weirder. Essentially, if you can imagine it, we probably have something like it in our roster."

"I doubt that," Weiss said, "there's no way they can have every type. Combat is too diverse a field to be covered by a single organization."

"We probably do anyway." Riven replied, leaning her head back to think, "There were 114 champions last time I counted, and all of us have different fighting styles."

"I guess we'll just take your word for it." Blake said, "But you still haven't told us what you're doing in Vale."

Riven shook her head in reply. "Like I said, I can't tell you. Mostly that's 'cause I don't know much myself. And the little bits I do know I haven't been authorized to tell anyone except the headmaster."

When she saw the disappointed faces of the students in front of her, Riven decided to say a bit more. Leaving them in the dark after telling them this much just seemed cruel. _Besides, if they pry into something they shouldn't, I can just pretend I don't know anything._

"If I had to guess, I'd say we're here to chase down some supernatural threat to humanity or something along those lines." That got Ruby interested again, and Riven decided to stick to official statements again, just to be safe. "The Institute of War dedicated itself to: 'The suppression and/or elimination of all large-scale threats to human life.'" Riven waved her arms around as she said that. "So that's probably what led them here."

"Because the Institute controls the League, and the League controls us champions, we occasionally get sent on missions to fix things normal people can't touch. Like I said, we have a pretty diverse roster."

"So you're a super-secret-super-spy too?"

_Ruby just needs to calm down and pick an emotion already._

Riven sighed in response. Usually, the Exile liked staying out of the limelight. As a person who was almost universally hated, attention was always a bad thing, and the less her enemies knew about her, the better. On the other hand, Riven was trying to start a new life here on Remnant, so she could at least tell them a bit about her fighting style. "I'm not usually the one to do the covert stuff. They pick me for anything that requires a lot of versatility and endurance. Also, I don't use magic to fight, which can be really important in some circumstances."

Ren raised a finger and pointed it at Riven in an objective stance. "There! You mentioned magic again. What do you mean by that?"

To this, the only response Riven really had was a shrug. "I don't know. Like I said, I don't use the stuff. All I can tell you for sure is that magic uses mana. Besides that, you'll have to ask the summoners for more info."

"There's not much more I can tell you about the Institute without permission anyway." she said, trying to change the subject, "Besides, you still haven't told me about Remnant, or those hunters and huntresses Ruby mentioned."

* * *

**AN: Chapter three. The weekly schedule's working out well so far. Don't expect it to last. Chapter four should be out next Friday if I know what I'm doing (I usually don't).**

**In the mean time, please leave a review with your honest criticism. I'm finalizing a hierarchy of writing priorities to put on my profile so that you guys have a sort of syllabus to work off of. You won't have to use it, but if you want to be helpful, that will be the best way to do it. **


	4. Exile extraterrestrial

**AN: Sooo... yeah, one day late isn't too bad right? IMSORRYPLEASEDONTHATEME! Yeah, the schedule worked for a bit, but this shows you how slow my writing is. This chapter was already half-done, and I still couldn't finish it in seven days.**** It's been a fun ride, but the next chapter looks like it will take more than a week's work to finalize.**

**Also, I saw a couple of things in the reviews that I wanted to clear up.**

**1\. This story will include all champions I deem relevant to the plot, regardless of their release date (unless Riot makes something that completely destroys the storyline). The whole '114 champions' thing from Riven was accurate when I originally wrote the story and I decided to leave it the way it was fur teh lulz.**

**2\. Going by the LoL lore, champions are the strongest fighters available and on par with beings of immense power (Brand, Syndra, etc.). Going by the RWBY fight scenes, these students (who are still training BTW) are capable of impossible stunts already. Combine these two facts, and you get champions that are orders of magnitude stronger than they appear on Summoner's Rift. **

**3\. I don't need character ideas. I'm glad you guys are excited about this story, but this is the only category of reviews that isn't useful. I already have plans to incorporate all of the major RWBY characters, as well as at least 15 different champions. Unless you find an obvious opportunity that I've missed, your suggestion won't be helpful.**

**4\. As the more perceptive of you may have noticed, whenever I upload a new chapter, I tend to rewrite and reupload the previous one. This is simply because of the fact that nothing I produce will ever be perfect, but I can definitely put in the effort to make my writing a little bit closer to perfection. These edits almost never have an effect on the ****overall plot, and if they do, I'll certainly tell you in the new chapter's AN.**

**Please don't let that stop you from reviewing though. I do genuinely love the feedback, especially here since this one was a bit rushed. **

**(INSERT FUNNY DISCLAIMER HERE) **

* * *

(Ruby POV)

"... and you still haven't told me anything about Remnant, or those hunters and huntresses that Ruby mentioned."

As soon as Riven finished that last sentence, everyone at the table instantly turned to look at the red-hooded leader. Usually, she would have taken notice of that many people staring at her, but Ruby was caught up in a conundrum.

_How do you explain what it means to be a huntress? I guess you can say it's about protecting those who can't protect themselves, but there's so much MORE to it. There's the Grimm, the White Fang, Torchwick, normal everyday bad guys, and then there's the homework. I still can't believe Oobleck gave us a five page essay due next week. Man, if Weiss wasn't on my team there'd be now way I'd be able to-YOU'RE GETTING OFF TOPIC!_

"Well..." Ruby started, unsure of where to start, "You know the Grimm right?"

Riven tilted her head slightly and gave Ruby a blank look.

_The Grimm. You know, big, black, scary-to-a-four-year-old monster things out to kill all of mankind?_

"I could ask you the same, Ruby."

_Wait. What was that Weiss said? I don't get it._

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means your grimmology grades have been… sub-par lately."

"HEY!"

"She's not exactly wrong."

"Jaune! Lay off my sis."

"You aren't doing any better."

"Blake, you did NOT just say that."

"FIGHT! FIGHT! FI-"

"Nora, no."

"Waitwaitwait, hold on." Riven interjected, holding her hands up to get the table's attention. "What is the Grimm? You never explained that."

The entire table turned around slowly to face the champion, and gave her blank looks.

_Waitwhat? She's joking right? How could you possibly not know what the Grimm are? Yes, maybe if you LITERALLY lived under a rock you might miss them, but Riven was an army commander! Surely she would have been called up to defend a city or two from Grimm attacks. Maybe she was so super-ultra-special that they weren't enough challenge for her and so they never let her know about them in case she- Wait no, she was an exile for a while. There's no way she wouldn't fight any Grimm out in the wilderness. Scratch that idea. How…_

Pyrrha eventually spoke up. "You don't know..." she said slowly, "what the Grimm are?"

Riven looked confused. "Should I? I'm from an entirely different realm, remember?"

"Well, yeah but..." Jaune said, spinning his hand as he tried to find the right words "Your realm seems... normal...ish..."

"Except for the magic." Ren interrupted, "I still don't believe you on that. Are you sure it's not just applied dust?"

"How would you 'apply' dust to anything?" Riven said, looking even more confused now, "And how would that help?"

Ruby immediately looked over at Weiss, who appeared offended for a second, before she began reciting the official Schnee Corp. definition of dust.

* * *

**In order to preserve your interest, I, QQQ, have elected to remove this lecture. We continue our story approximately 45 minutes later, at its conclusion.**

* * *

_..._

_Please never do that again Weiss._

Riven was staring off into space with a face that looked like it was melting from boredom, but she was still doing far better than the rest of the table. Blake, Pyrrha, and Ren were all distracted, looking in random directions, Ruby and Jaune were resting their chins on their knuckles in an attempt to keep their eyes open, and Yang and Nora had long ago abandoned all pretense and fallen completely unconscious.

_I know your pain. I think I dozed off there for a bit. Weiss is going to chew me out for that too._

"Riven. Are you OK?" Pyrrha asked as she waved a hand in front of her face.

Riven sat up as though she'd been shocked, and was suddenly staring straight at Weiss as though she were the most interesting thing in the world. "Right!" she said in a strained voice. "Yeah… I'm fine. Thanks. Now I know where to point the summoners when they want to know more about your technology."

Weiss sighed and sat back down. Blake ignored her partner's snoring and looked back at Riven. "Anyways, there was something else you wanted to hear about?"

Riven shook herself awake and looked over at the faunus (_not that she knows that_). "Yeah. She mentioned them a couple times, but I don't remember her saying anything about what the Grimm are."

"Wow. You've really never heard of them have you?" Jaune said incredulously, "Come on. Big black monsters?"

"What, those black wolf-bear things?" Riven asked, bringing her hands up in claw-like motions, "Yeah, I fought a few on the way over. I thought they were just wild animals. They certainly fought like animals, but then again, one of them did blow away when it died. Is that normal?"

"Yeah, they do that."

"So those are the Grimm." The champion mumbled to herself as she brought a hand to her chin, "Why are they important to the hunters? I assume they're hunted in some regard?"

Blake nodded. "The creatures of Grimm are the dark, soulless monsters that have threatened humanity since its inception. They seem to only exist in order to attack us, and no one knows where they came from."

"They're also what the hunters hunt!"

_Leave it to Blake to leave out the best part. I guess that's why I'm here though. Ruby Rose: here to save the day from boring monologues yet again!_

_Ugh… Yang's been rubbing off on me more than usual lately._

Riven nodded in understanding. "Ok, so you're huntresses in a more Vayne kind of way."

"Actually, MOST of us are actually quite humble!" Blake said, spinning around to shoot a glare at Weiss.

"What was that look supposed to mean?"

"No! That's not what I meant! I was talking about…" Riven's interjection faltered as she tried to find a way to describe whatever was on her mind. "Never mind. What I mean is that you're professional monster killers."

Eagar to break the awkward silence, Pyrrha picked up the conversation and ran with it (metaphorically anyway). "Not exactly. Huntsmen, at the simplest level, are people who protect those who cannot defend themselves. There isn't much more of a concrete definition than that, so they have a lot of room to specialize."

"Most of the time though," Ruby butted in, "it just comes down to killing Grimm."

The crimson warrior hesitated for a moment in case the hooded leader felt like continuing before starting again. "Some of the more charismatic or eccentric huntsmen may pursue a career in law enforcement or the Special Forces, but yes, the vast majority go to Grimm hunting."

"Hence the name."

Riven looked surprised at this. "So, you're saying that you guys are all training to be professional monster hunters?"

Ruby nodded enthusiastically. "Yeup!" _And we're gonna be the best! Just wait and see._

"That seems excessive though." Riven said, "I mean, humanity has survived here for how long?"

"Vale was founded about 2000 years ago."

"Wow, and so these early people were able to survive with weapons technology that was 2000 years out of date?" Riven raised an eyebrow. "You guys should have made enough progress to minimize the problem by the time two millennia have passed. At least you wouldn't need an entire field of elite fighters for it."

"That's the scariest thing about the Grimm." Ruby said in a hushed undertone, "The stronger humans get, the stronger the Grimm get."

"She's right." Blake said when Riven still didn't look convinced, "Even with all of the combat advances we've made, the Grimm have only become more of a threat. No matter how hard we try, they're always too strong and too numerous. We can't ever seem to beat them, only push them back."

Riven opened up her mouth, then closed it again. She sat and thought for a few seconds before speaking again. "So..." she said slowly, as though the words were coming to her as she spoke them, "are you saying that there's some sort of... arms race between the humans and Grimm, or is the monster population somehow... tied to the human population?"

_OOH! OOH! I know this one!_

Ruby actually raised her hand as though answering a teacher in class. She dropped the hand when Riven looked over to her, but maintained the ecstatic demeanor. "While we don't know the exact place or method by which the Grimm enter this world, professional Grimmologists have found that the population of Grimm is rising at a shallow exponential rate. Though there are many theories as to why this is, the fact that the Grimm population doubles about every 20 years, along with new species of Grimm appearing every day, has pushed humanity to create the field of hunters and huntresses to protect the rest of humanity and allow it to grow." Ruby sat up straight with hands on her hips, emanating an aura of pride. Most of the table was surprised that Ruby had managed to memorize something that wasn't a weapon, (sans Riven who was back in deep thought) but her partner simply held her forehead and sighed.

"See Weiss? I DO pay attention in Grimmology."

"Ruby, we learned that on the third day of class, and I'm not sure you know what 'exponential' means."

"Well… At least I'm studying my notes right?"

"Those were MY notes that I copied for you."

"Awww…."

_I DID study them though..._

"AND your GPA is still a whole point and a half below mine. Didn't you say you were going to do something about that?"

"HEY! Which of us has scored higher in skirmish tests again?"

While the two partners were bickering back and forth, Riven was leaning back with a hand on her chin. "You mentioned something about the founding of place called Vale." she interrupted, immediately drawing the attention of both teams despite not raising her voice, "I thoguht this place was called Remnant. Was Vale the name of the first human colony or am I missing something?"

_Seriously? Even MY geography is better than this._

"Ooookay..." slurred a very anxious Jaune as he glanced around at his friends, "First, you are in the kingdom of Vale right now, which is a part of the world of Remnant." Riven nodded slowly while the rest of the students rolled their eyes. "And second, she's from a completely different world guys, let her off easy on this one."

Yang threw her arms in the air at this. "Yeah but seriously, how could you POSSIBLY not know something like that?"

Riven chuckled, apparently realizing the absurdity of her situation at last. "You are... overestimating the size of the briefing I got before this mission."

Blake raised an eyebrow. "You're undergoing a long-term reconnaissance mission in a hostile area you know nothing about. There's quite a lot of need-to-know information in that. I'd say you got at least a conservative ten minute briefing."

"Let's see. If we assume that there aren't any social or political encounters in your mission, then you'd need to know the route, destination, and what to do when you got there," Weiss listed, counting off fingers as she went, "as well as possible obstacles, enemies, and stopping points. Then, of course, you'd have speciaised protocol and contingency plans since you're working in isolation from your superior."

_Ladies and gentlemen, meet Weiss: Resident beurocracy and red tape expert of team RWBY._

"Is that the official SDC method of sending out recon missions?" Yang questioned with what sounded like genuine curiosity despite the grin that was spreading on her face.

Weiss took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "No, I simply came up with all of the points that I deemed especially relevant."

"I also don't think the world's leading producer of energy propellant needs to send out many recon missions." Pyrrha noted, drawing a chuckle out of her team and a nervous cough out of the heiress. "But, getting back on topic," she said, turning to face their new friend, "How much of that did they give you before you came here?"

"They told me... what Beacon looked like, what the Emerald Forest looked like, and how to deploy the anchoring ward trinket." Riven said, counting off her middle and ring finger (the ones Weiss had used for 'destination' and 'what to do'), "They also gave me a general idea of which direction to go just before communication was cut, but I don't think that counts as 'route'."

Riven shifted uncomfortably in her seat while the rest of the table stared at her. "Time was short okay?"

* * *

(Riven POV)

Nora was in the middle of reciting yet another recurring dream (this one about sailing the high seas as a navy high commander hunting down beowulf pirates) when Jaune idly checked his scroll. The entire table fell hushed when he stood up.

"WOAH! Ruby, check your scroll!" Jaune said as he began to read the message aloud with a wide grin on his face, "'Due to unexpected scheduling difficulties with the faculty-" But he didn't get the chance to finish.

All of the sudden, Ruby leaped up from her seat and yelled the rest loud enough for the entire hall to hear. "'MORNING CLASSES HAVE BEEN CANCELED'!" At this, the other seven students' eyes widened. "'ALL STUDENTS HAVE FREE TIME UNTIL NOON'!"

There was a moment of stunned silence in the hall as the two teams stared at the standing leader who wore an expression of extreme excitement. Weiss was the first to come back to her senses.

"Wait. Are you sure?"

"Yeah." Jaune said as he laid his scroll on the table for the rest to see, "'Full modified schedule included below'. It's direct from Ozpin too."

The teams leaned in to get a better view of the message and verify its validity. Even Nora, Blake, and Ren climbed over their teammates (with varying degrees of subtlety) to get a look. Ruby released a short squeal of excitement.

"YES! This is it! WaitrighthereguysI'llbebackinasec!"

With that, she vanished in a blur of red leaving nothing behind except a fierce gust of wind and a couple dozen rose petals that hung in the air for a moment. Riven, who hadn't spoken a word for the last ten minutes, looked over at the remainder of team RWBY with her mouth hanging open.

"Don't worry," Yang said, "she does this a lot."

"And she's the one that calls the shots around here?"

Sensing Riven's disbelief, Weiss frowned at the visitor. "Ruby Rose is a very good leader thank you very much. She's an intelligent and courageous individual, even if she is a little...", the heiress paused as though trying to find the right word for the scenario, "eccentric... at times."

Weiss might have had more to say, but whatever she had intended to add was interrupted by a grinning Yang who grabbed the heiress in a vicious headlock and started ruffling up her hair. "DAAAAAaaawwww" She said in her most insulting baby voice, "Widdle Weissey wearned to wike widdle Wuby! Isun dat just pweshuuuuus."

"Get off!"

"But it's so adorable to see you two getting along!" Yang picked up her struggling teammate in a massive bear hug and shook her back and forth.

"I... was... just... OW! That was my neck!"

A flash of red interrupted the argument as Ruby reappeared. Less than a second later there was a SLAM that knocked over some glasses as she dropped a massive binder on the table. Said binder was at least a foot thick and had 'Best Day Ever Activities' scrawled across it in red marker.

_Wait, what did she cross out there?_

"A-hem!" The red leader said to redundantly gather the attention of her teammates.

"Sisters!" She motioned to Yang who waved, clearly excited for the ensuing speech.

"Friends!" She turned to acknowledge team JNPR who smiled at differing volumes. (Nora was shaking with enthusiasm.)

"Weiss..." She turned back with eyes narrowed. The heiress responded with an annoyed "HEY!".

"and Riven." She turned yet again to look at the champion who was laughing at Wiess's exception.

_Is this normal for them? Because if it is, I might never leave._

"Four score and seven minutes ago, I had a dream."

"This oughta be good." Yang said in an undertone to her partner.

"A dream that, one day, the four of us would come together, as a team, and have the most fun anyone has ever had... EVER!"

"Did you steal my binder?" Weiss asked, interrupting the speech.

_So that's what it says._ Riven thought, finally interpreting the words: 'Vytal Festival Activities, Property of Wiess Schnee' that had originally been written on the cover. _I had a lane partner like this once, except he stole CS instead of binders. And they ask why I prefer to go solo…_

"I am not a crook."

"What are you talking about?" Blake asked, ignoring Weiss's deadly glare.

"I'm talking about kicking this day off with a bang!"

Yang turned to her partner with a grin. "I always kick my days off with a YANG!"

The response was instantaneous. Weiss looked away and covered her face with one hand, and Blake looked at her partner with a blank face that eloquently told her how unfunny the pun was. Ruby, Jaune, and Pyrrha rolled their eyes, Nora looked angry, Ren closed his eyes and took a deep breath, and Riven couldn't keep the grin from her face.

"Eh? Guys? Yeah! Riven gets it." Yang said, but was hit with an apple from Nora, along with a boo that was echoed by nearby tables.

_Did someone say something about a barb?_

Ruby spoke up to re-gather everyone's attention. "Guys," she said as they all looked back at her, "it's been a good few weeks, and between more exchange students arriving soon and the tournament at the end of the year, our second semester's gonna be great! But, this might be our only free time for a while. Which is why I've taken the time to schedule a series of wonderful events for us today!"

"I don't know whether to be proud or scared of what you have in store." Wiess interrupted again, her expression suggesting the latter.

"I don't know." said Blake. Everyone turned to look at the quiet member of RWBY. "I think I might just sit this one out."

"Sit-out or not," Weiss said, "I think however we spend this time off, we should do it as a team. I, for one..."

Whatever she was planning to say, the heiress was interrupted again. This time, it was by a cream pie to the face. As the pan fell to the ground, Weiss leveled her glare straight at JNPR whose faces were frozen in shock and panic (with the exception of Ren who simply face-palmed again).

The next few minutes were a blur for Riven. It all started with Nora pointing at Ren, but after a lot of thrown food, broken furniture, and fleeing students, Nora was climbing to the top of a mountain of tables. While Jaune, Pyrrha, and Ren ran around the base gathering watermelons, RWBY was at the other end of the dining hall trying to convince Riven to help them in the impending food fight.

* * *

(Author POV)

**AN: IMPENDING FOOD FIGHT! Yes, I'm sorry that this chapter was so short and ended on a cliffhanger, BUT its not as bad as it seems. You see, the only reason I've been able to keep a weekly schedule is because I've been working through a backlog. I have been working on a couple other projects in the background, but I'm not sure when the first one will be out.**

**Sorry for the wait, but the next chapter of this is almost finished, and the chapter after that is about half done. Additionally, I have two more LoL stories in the pipeline, as well as two non-LoL stories planned. Still, don't hold your breath for any of them. I have no idea when the first chapters of those new stories will be done, but hopefully the wait will be shorter than the average human incubation period. All of them have plenty of room for expansion, and are looking to be 10k words each. Fun times!**


	5. FOOD FIGHT!

**AN: Well, that took quite a bit longer than expected. Hopefully, none of you lost hope in the last month.**

**Anyways, GOOD NEWS! I got a beta reader! Lady and gentleman, please welcome... *drumroll* SANGUIS ANIMA, fellow RWBY lover and writer extraordinaire! Say hi Sanguis!**

**SanguisAnima: *nods slightly, giving a small salute* 'Sup guys.**

**Aaaaanyways, thanks to SA's wonderful, amazing, Überraschung-deserving generosity, you guys are no longer my sole source of feedback! I now have a genuinely good writer with whom I can discuss the minuscule parts of story construction without having to send a creepy number of replies to hapless civilians who stumble on this story by mistake.**

**This, of course, should not discourage you from reviewing! I still need to know what you guys think of this story, and I definitely can't get a crowd rating from a single person no matter how awesome they are.**

**It takes a scant few seconds to know RWBY and League of Legends, but it takes many dollars to convince Riot Games and Roosterteeth to own them.**

* * *

(Riven POV)

As leader, Ruby was responsible for making her half of the fight as dramatic as possible. Thus, she sat, her mind doubtlessly dreaming up various acts, lines and gags as the remainder of her team tried their best to drag their new friend into the fun, all the while slowly sipping from a small carton of Udder Satisfaction.

"Come on." Yang said with a gentle nudge to the Exile's shoulder, "Just grab something you can use as a weapon and join the fun! I promise we won't actually hurt you."

Riven shook her head. "That's not what I'm worried about. I can keep up a shield just fine, but I don't think I can fight you without hurting anyone."

The girls looked offended for a moment. "We can keep a shield up!" Weiss shouted with hands on her hips, "What makes you think we got into Beacon without proper aura control?"

"Jaune." Yang shot back almost immediately, as though that explained everything.

Apparently, it did. Weiss opened her mouth to say something, but stopped to think for a moment. "Good point," she conceded and looked back to Riven. "Grab a weapon."

_I guess using my normal sword is still out of the question, weird aura stuff or no_. Riven thought as she scanned the floor. _There's just something wrong about using a weapon that can kill ghosts, demons, and living rocks against these children._ Eventually, her eyes settled on a table that had been broken in the blur. It wasn't exactly food, but a table leg was probably the only thing they'd allow that was strong enough for the champion's fighting style. No sooner had Riven grabbed it than a high laugh rang out through the hall. She turned to see Nora on top of the tower of tables, laughing an evil laugh.

"I'm queen of the castle! I'm queen of the castle!"

At that moment, the faces of RWBY and JNPR settled into deadly serious glares and Ruby leaped onto the table in front of them. Milk carton in hand, she raised an arm and pointed straight at her opponents.

"Justice will be swift!" She yelled at the top of her lungs. "Justice will be painful! It will be DELICIOUS!"

Ruby's team jumped up behind their leader and roared their approval. The small shower of milk signaled the start of the most epic food fight.

_This is insane._ Riven thought as a wave of watermelons flew towards them, _and I can't wait to be part of it._

"Yang! Turkey!"

Riven strafed across the edge of the cafeteria and the action unfolded in front of her. She couldn't help but smile at how seriously the two teams took the fake fight. While Yang dashed into the hail of watermelons, Riven made her way around the side, looking for an opening. It took the champion a second to realize that she didn't know what that would look like. She didn't know anything about these students' fighting styles, and had no idea when they would be vulnerable.

_Which side am I even on anyway? They didn't tell me, so does that mean I'm on neither? Yeah, let's go with that._

The champion shook herself back to reality to see Blake and Pyrrha having a sword duel, or at least as close to one as they could get. Both of them were wielding long bread sticks, and their attacks were punctuated by soft thwack_ noises_ rather than the ringing of metal on metal. Still, they looked as focused as they would be in a normal fight, albeit with more edge-on-edge blocking.

_How are those breadsticks so strong? They weren't even stale, let alone made of steel. Maybe that has something to do with their aura? This new realm is giving me way too many questions._

Seizing her opportunity, Riven dashed forward with a counter-clockwise spin. Carefully planning out her combo mid-flight, Riven landed with a slash that hit both girls. Pyrrha was knocked back like expected, but Blake seemed to fizzle out of existence entirely. One moment she was there, but right as the improvised sword was about to hit her, the girl's body bent and flickered like the image on a television with a bad signal. Riven was so surprised that she let her guard down, leaving her vulnerable to an agile bread-assault from both girls.

_That was a good trick. I'll have to keep it in mind._ She thought absentmindedly as the incoming attacks did little to retain her focus. The Exile might have been a bit awkward in foreign social situations, but this was her element. After spending a lifetime perfecting the art of sword fighting, the dodging and blocking passed through her mind subconsciously as she danced through the fight with natural efficiency and grace. _I wonder if they can all pull a disappearing act like Blake did._ A moment later, she mentally shrugged. _Not likely, since Pyrrha didn't._

It felt a bit strange to Riven to use an unimpressive piece of wood in combat instead of her normal weapon, as it lacked the weight and durability of black stone that could deflect attacks with almost no damage. Even though she was only blocking bread sticks, Riven found herself having to parry a lot more than she was comfortable with. The weak wrist moments felt strange to the champion, as she prided herself on her strength and ability to overpower her opponent._ Still, you can't deny that there's plenty of skill involved, and skill is a strength all its own._

Suppressing her curiosity and bringing her focus back to the fight, Riven leapt past Pyrrha, throwing a slash mid-jump. The redhead parried the attack and quickly followed with a swipe at Riven's legs while Blake strafed around to attack from the other side. Instead of trying to defend herself from two assailants, Riven let out a burst of Ki that temporarily stunned both girls. She then initiated a quick five-hit combo on Blake in the moment the stun bought her, and knocked her down before turning back around just in time to block a jab from Pyrrha.

_Wow!_ _That was much faster than normal. I guess wood is lighter than weapons-grade black stone. Who knew?_

Dueling Pyrrha turned out to be more difficult than Riven had anticipated. The redhead turned out to be a fairly good duelist, reacting quickly to her opponent's attacks and overpowering the weaker parts of her defenses.

In the end though, the Exile's speed and experience were too much for Pyrrha. After a three second long stalemate of rapid slashes, stabs, parries and blocks, Riven finally found her opening. She parried a jab from the breadstick and threw a feint with a quick punch at the gut. Pyrrha brought her empty hand down to block the attack, but Riven followed up with a table leg to the ribs. Pyrrha spun around from the impact, and couldn't react in time as Riven landed a leaping strike to her shoulder.

The force of the blow made Pyrrha bounce three times on the hardwood floor, but left Riven wide open to an attack from an unexpected challenger. Ruby, surfing a serving tray on the tables at a rather startling speed, slammed into the side of Riven's head and sent her flying backwards several feet into an upended table.

The Exile, legendary champion and paragon of strength, did little to demonstrate her image as she got up to her feet slowly while holding her forehead and blinking the stars out of her vision. While Riven was slightly out of it, a battle was raging on a few feet away from her. Ren attempted to rush Ruby and Weiss, but slid on a trap made of a massive pool of catsup. Nora, who was now armed with a makeshift hammer made of a metal pole with a watermelon as the head, aimed to take out Weiss with a mighty swing. Before the orange-haired girl could connect, Ruby intercepted the blow and got herself whacked to the other side of the hall instead.

In order to avenge her teammate, Weiss picked up...

_...a swordfish... How very clever of you..._

...and charged at Nora, hitting her with a stab. Mrs. Melon-hammer blocked the attack, but was still launched into the air. After a rather impressive backwards somersault, she landed on her feet, ready to counter-attack. The problem with this plan was that she also landed a couple meters in front of Riven.

_That's my opening._

Before Nora could even move, Riven's first attack connected with her shoulder. The boisterous hammer wielder spun around with an unnecessarily loud "WOAH!" and raised her weapon in a clumsy block. It was a good instinct, but Riven spun around for two quick strikes that easily passed the defense. A low swipe to the legs threw Nora off balance, and a stronger one to the back threw her out of the fight altogether.

Riven was about to execute a similar, if longer, combo on Weiss when the heiress jumped straight into the air. At the peak of her jump arc, she landed on a white glyph as it appeared right under her feet. The glyph tilted forwards, giving Weiss a great angle to leap towards her new opponent, which she did with a twirl.

Riven, also a fan of spinning, leaped up to meet her opponent midair with a forwards somersault. Both women let loose mighty battle cries as they flew towards each other. The Exile brought her weapon down in a powerful overhead chop, and the heiress reached down at her rising opponent with a strong stab. Riven had expected to cleave the swordfish in two, even with a blunt table leg, but again the Beacon Academy food was much more durable than it appeared. Somehow the scales remained strong enough to block the attack, even as the wood slid down the fish's snout and slammed into its face.

The strikes were equally powerful and the attackers rebounded off each other, landing a couple feet apart. They combatants were motionless for a long second as each sized up the other. After that second passed though, they both leaped forwards, engaging in a dance of fish and wood.

A short distance away, Yang and Ren charged at each other, foot meeting leek in a tense standoff. The close-quarters duel that followed reflected the poor matchup. While Ren's attacks were all either dodged or blocked, Yang's faster and stronger blows managed to connect, and eventually threw her classmate high into the air. Taking advantage of his new - if unorthodox - distance advantage, Ren discarded his weapons. Instead of simply tossing them aside though, he threw them down at his opponent to perhaps buy some more time to reposition. In the meantime, the green-clad warrior took note of where and how he would land so he could set up a method of attack that would better utilize his more agile fighting style.

The plan didn't pan out properly though. Yang dodged the incoming projectiles and jumped up to meet her friend in mid-air. A single mighty punch sent Ren plummeting into the ground with such force that the resulting shockwave flung silverware into the air and noticeably disturbed the surrounding furniture.

Nearby, Weiss hit a column and fell into her partner's arms. Riven chuckled a bit at the obviously faked cries Ruby was projecting across the hall before scanning the room for another chance to participate in this wonderfully chaotic brawl.

Said opportunity came when Yang and Nora ran at each other, improvised weapons primed for assault. The champion charged forward and leaped at Nora, who turned around just in time to block the hit. Still, the energetic hammer wielder absorbed the force and was pushed back again. Riven changed her focus to Yang whose turkey-fist was still headed right for her.

_That,_ Riven thought as the meat knocked her back a good five feet, _is why you always initiate with a shield up._

Not to be stopped by one hit, Riven charged back at the blonde and parried the first punch with a swipe of the table leg. Riven threw out a burst of ki to put Yang off balance and, careful to monitor Nora's position in the background, continued the assault with four rapid strikes with her wooden weapon. The barrage was enough to push Yang back and put her on the defensive. Nora, on the other hand, was charging forward with a powerful underhand swing.

Riven fell back on her maneuverability advantage and leaped high over the charge. Instead of landing softly like most fighters would and transitioning smoothly into another combo, she slammed the improvised sword into the ground with all her might, whereupon the table leg shattered into a thousand tiny splinters that bounced off her shield.

_Oh yeah. This is a piece of broken wood, not a spirit-infused runeblade._

Had Riven been wielding her usual weapon, Nora would have been blasted off her feet by the impact and pulse of ki energy. Still, it did get her out of the way, and Yang shot through the roof as a result. Riven got to her feet to see the melon-hammer swinging around a second time and heading right towards her stomach. Even with her shield up, the impact sent the champion flying towards JNPR's wooden fortress.

Slamming into a row of soda machines broke Riven's shield and sent sharp slivers of pain up her spine.

The Exile barely managed to land on her feet as the familiar feeling of vulnerability settled in. Due to her very offense-is-the-best-defense fighting style and relative lack of durability, Riven's ki shield comprised almost the entirety of her direct defense. Whenever it was down, the champion made sure that her enemies couldn't hit her, one way or another.

_Either keeping my distance or through crowwwwhat's that flying towards me?_

Again, Riven raised a new shield just in time to save herself from a concussion before Nora flew into her, apparently propelled by a long sausage chain. Though she was spared from any serious injury, Riven still cushioned Nora's impact by slamming back into the soda machines, which were now broken so badly that various brands of soda cans littered the floor.

Nora was back on her feet immediately throwing fizzy projectiles at Blake. Riven, on the other hand, saw stars for the next few seconds while she stood very shakily. As she tried to solidify her bearings on the situation, she heard a loud, low pulse ring through the air, which was immediately followed by the clattering of hundreds, if not thousands of cans. Riven silently wished she could see straight as she listened to the sounds of a rapid array of explosions and a series of yelps that sounded like Blake.

_Seriously! What is this aura stuff and where can I buy some?_

By the time the champion's vision cleared, the black-haired girl was flying towards the back of the dining hall, the scene was already set for a dramatic finish. Ruby was standing in a dramatic pose across the hall, Ren and Jaune were starting to get up, and Pyrrha and Nora were standing in battle-ready position, ready to respond to any attacks from either of their new opponents.

Though she was at least a hundred feet away, Riven could still see the subtle shift as Ruby crouched down. The entire brawl paused a moment there. Both sides were tense for some kind of finale. Riven settled into a low fighting stance as she tried to remember the hand-to-hand techniques that she hadn't practiced properly in months.

With an almost audible snap, the fighting resumed. Ruby pushed off with incredible speed and a high-pitched yell. Pyrrha and Nora assumed defensive positions as the hooded leader ran in a large circle around the cafeteria. She ran with such speed that a whirlwind formed behind her that was strong enough to sweep up plates, food, and broken furniture.

_Well, this is familiar._

Riven braced herself against the ground and re-summoned her shield to resist the wave of food, sodas, and silverware that was rapidly moving her way. She, along with the entirety of JNPR, was picked up by the gale and pinned to the wall where they were pelted with all of the edible debris.

There was a silent moment as the battle ended. There was no ringing bell or shattering nexus, but everyone knew instantly that Ruby had finished the food fight when she stuck the classic three-point landing. Behind her, her defeated opponents stuck to the wall awkwardly.

_Yasuo's hurts more._ Was Riven's first thought as she peeled herself away from the sticky surface and fell to the floor with JNPR. The champion landed softly on top of Nora and heard Jaune make a squeak from the bottom of the pile. Weiss helped Blake to her feet off in the distance.

Riven was about to congratulate Ruby on her finishing move when Nora picked up an armful of food and dishes and threw them straight at the RWB. The three girls dodged the speedy projectiles, and another brawl was about to break out when the far entrance to the dining hall burst open.

Professor Goodwitch marched in, her rage palpable from across the cafeteria. She stopped the flying plates and apples in midair with a raised hand, and they fell to the floor. A swing of the riding crop caused a deep hum to ring through the hall. Instantly, all of the tables (and shards thereof) were lifted into the air and reassembled as they made their way back to their original positions. With one last wave, Prof. Goodwitch directed the last table as it bounced to its place next to her before turning to the students. Riven didn't have to look to know that all of her friends were just as shocked as she was, though perhaps for different reasons.

"Children... Please..." Glynda said calmly through her obvious frustration as she adjusted her glasses, "Do not play with your food."

Riven normally would have smiled at the absurdity of the statement, but the professor's glare had everyone in the hall too scared to move. All of that tension vaporized immediately when Yang made her presence known by falling through the ceiling right onto one of the newly fixed tables.

_Wow, that's quite the knock-up. I wonder if Mercury Treads would have helped her there..._

At this, everyone from both team RWBY and team JNPR began laughing uncontrollably. With the stains, smears, and bits of food adorning them, as well as the pointing, teasing, and shoulder patting, one could say it was a magical kind of laughter; the kind where the reserved Blake and prim-and-proper Weiss were laughing just as hard as the rowdy Yang and childish Ruby. There was no regard for past grievances or future consequences. Everyone just took that moment relax and be happy together.

Prof. Goodwitch, on the other hand, looked ready to enforce lifelong detention on everyone her riding crop wouldn't reach, but Prof. Ozpin walked in behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder. Glynda's scowl faded and she turned to the headmaster.

_I wonder what they're saying... Whatever it is, it looks personal. I guess she trusts him._

Ozpin walked up to Riven with his cane in one hand a familiar blue rectangle in the other. "Hello again Ms. Riven," he said, holding out the scroll, "I think you dropped this in your excitement."

"Oh, sorry." Riven said. Looking down, she noticed the phrase **[2 unread messages]** blinking right above the surface.

"It's no problem." Ozpin said with a wave of his hand, "Just try and keep better track of it from now on." Riven nodded and tucked the scroll back in the harness on her back.

_I should really get a better harness. This one wasn't made for long-term use._

"Also," the headmaster said, interrupting Riven's train of thought with a deadly serious expression, "I should tell you that, as a mature adult, you are expected to be far more responsible than this."

* * *

**AN: Aaaand back to the drama. Don't worry, more characters will drop in soon. As for when... The next chapter's gonna take a bit. It's an important one, and I really want to get it right. Hopefully it won't take as long as this one, and I also have a beta reader now, so I can ensure higher quality storytelling overall at the cost of a couple more days' production time.**

**Seriously though, you guys should check out SanguisAnima's stories. He is actually quite good (why else would I trust him with a story this valuable?) and you can find him under my favorited authors.**

***Sanguis : D'aww, you didn't have to. But thanks!***

And now... Prepare to face my inner physics nerd!

So yeah, you know the part in the food fight scene where Nora whacks Yang into the stratosphere? Well, if you have a stopwatch app on your phone, you'll find that she stays airborne for a minute and 37 seconds.

Using some basic kinematics and the assumption that Remnant's gravity is similar to Earth's, one can find that Yang reached a height of over 11,500 meters and hit the ground at about 475 meters per second (or 1060 miles per hour). For the sake of easing further calculations, I'm going to assume that Yang weighs a little under 100 kg being a tall, fit woman with turkeys on her hands. This means that Nora (keep in mind she did this with a melon on a pole rather than Magnhild) can casually exert 10 Mega joules, or just under 3 Kilowatt-hours of energy.

Because this probably doesn't impress most of you, I decided to put this in perspective. If you put your car in neutral and gave it the resulting 47,000 Newton-second momentum (momentum≠energy), you would go about 20 kilometers down the highway with the energy from that one attack.

I hope someone can check my math on that, because that's just insane. Of course, it doesn't take into account things like air resistance or gravity decreasing with distance, but both of those require a LOT more calculations, and they probably wouldn't make that much of a difference anyway. Also, I've only finished a basic physics class, so I'm probably misinterpreting something in there.

Can Season 2 please involve Nora playing Grimm-golf? PLEASE?!

*Sanguis : I second that.*


	6. Storm set to rise

**AN: Soooo…. Yeah…. Sorry for another impromptu break (I'm going to be saying that a lot aren't I) but college kinda… happened. Before you ask, I don't know what the upload schedule will look like in the near-ish future. Whatever happens though, I won't rush any of these chapters out. They will be ready when they are ready and that's when they'll be published.**

**Also, I should note that I try to avoid author tract as much as possible, and thus: The views and statements of the characters do not necessarily reflect the views and statements of the author. It's one of those stupid things you tend to do subconsciously without noticing, like when people hate on an actor because they did a really good job playing a villain.**

**Alsoalso, I should note that the copyrights and trademarks of League of Legends and RWBY DO necessarily reflect the copyrights and trademarks of Riot Games and Rooster Teeth respectively.**

* * *

(Riven POV)

"Also," the headmaster said, interrupting Riven's train of thought with a deadly serious expression, "I should tell you that, as a mature adult, you are expected to be far more responsible than this."

Riven's eyes narrowed at that statement. _Is he threatening me? I still have my sword with me, and you haven't seen what I can do yet PAL._

"You aren't authorized to order me around, and neither are the summoners." Riven said with menace in every syllable, "My freedom is one of the few things I have left, and you are NOT going to take it away from me."

One of the greater upsides provided by her champion status was freedom from any and all chains of command. Except for the forced participation in League matches, champions that weren't imprisoned by The Institute were pretty much free to do as they pleased. The Exile had volunteered to help out this school, but that did not mean that she would let herself be bullied around by another frail old man.

"I am not ordering you; I am imploring you." Ozpin continued, unperturbed by the champion's steely glare. "You are a guest, and I hold little power over your actions and choices." Riven's expression softened just the slightest bit, but she said nothing.

"I'm sure you've gone through a lot of pain already, both in Remnant and in Valoran, and you deserve relaxation and entertainment more than most." Ozpin broke eye contact to stare out the nearby window. "However, the times ahead of us are not going to allow you the opportunity to do so."

The headmaster's expression turned grave. He turned and walked towards the window, motioning for Riven to follow. She did, losing most of her anger to curiosity. She hadn't heard much about what they were going to be facing in this war, mostly because the summoners didn't know much themselves when they sent her.

_Whatever it is, it can't be an easy fight if the headmaster is this worried about it. Sure, the Void is a big threat, but we've got the whole of the Institute of War on our side, along with a school full of very capable fighters, at least if those two teams are anything to go by. Then again, I saw a voidling all the way just below that cliff, so who knows how powerful the void is here?_

_That's not even counting the Grimm. Sure, the few I fought went down easier than neutral camps on the Rift, but they can't have become humanity's greatest threat here by just annoying hikers all day long._

Riven dropped that train of thought and looked back at Ozpin. He met her gaze with a controlled expression that she was trying very hard to mirror.

"You will soon adopt a unique position, with your compliance of course." Ozpin noted when The Exile's brow furrowed again, "My current plan is to incorporate some of the champions as personal trainers for a small portion of the students."

The headmaster took a short sip from his coffee mug before continuing. "The problem is simple." He said, making a casual side gesture with his free hand, "As a very promising teacher, you cannot be on their level. Surely you understand, the summoners told me you were once a commander."

_So that's it. I guess that makes sense._

She hadn't seen the students that way before, but now that she heard the headmaster's point of view, she couldn't tell what else she could have expected. All the summoners knew for sure about the armies of the void was that it was far too strong for the Institute to face on its own, and growing stronger by the day. These students couldn't be much stronger than the champions of the League of Legends, so even with their forces combined they still probably wouldn't be enough. The students would have to train, which would mean the champions would have to be tutors.

"The students need times such as these in order to cement the bonds they share," Ozpin continued once he sensed Riven was paying attention again, "but the bond that they need to make with you is very different. The champions will be leading them on this difficult path, so they must look up to you."

Ozpin motioned to the students, who had finally wiped most of the food off of their soda-dyed uniforms, before continuing. "When these students look at their fellow classmates, they need to see an eternal comrade who will always lend help when requested, and never abandon or betray them in times of need."

"But when they look at me," Riven said, her voice echoing a lesson she had learned so long ago, "they need to see a steadfast paragon who will never let them fall or lead them astray." She looked back at the children across the hall, who were still laughing and joking with one another so much like so many soldiers in distant memory. "In order for them to follow me like they need to, I can't be one of them."

At this, Ozpin nodded solemnly. "I am glad you understand."

_Wait a minute…_ Riven paused as a thought struck her. An inconsistency that she hadn't noticed before became obvious in that moment.

_The Void invasion can't be THAT far away._ she noted to herself, slowly weaving a chain of logic threads in her head in order to solidify her thinking._ Training like this would take at least a couple years to take its full effect, especially if the students continued their normal class schedule._

_But the summoners wouldn't have been in that much of a hurry if there had been that much time to spare. The only reason he would do this would be…_

"…We're not ready for this, are we?" Riven said aloud, surprising the headmaster, "Not by a long shot."

Ozpin's eyes narrowed very slightly. "Why do you say that?"

"The void is coming, and you're suggesting a long-term strategy. It has huge potential rewards, but requires a punishing investment of time and energy." Riven paused for effect despite herself as her train of logic reached its conclusion. "You'd only do that if you had no other options. This is our only hope of victory."

For a long moment, Ozpin simply stared at her. Not in a wide-eyed, amazed way, but more as if Riven were a difficult puzzle he was solving piece by piece. Finally, he voiced his own conclusion. "… You are more perceptive than I gave you credit for."

"I'm a commander and tactician." Riven responded simply, "It's my job to figure out other people's plans."

Ozpin nodded, the response seeming to fit with his thoughts. "You are correct. I've considered every resource we have, but I don't see any other way for us to be strong enough to do this."

Riven's eyes narrowed. They were getting closer and closer to the point of contention, but it was never good to jump to conclusions. He might still have a good explanation. "But we don't have two or three years to train them properly, so we're going to rush their training. Squish two years of work into two months of Hell."

Prof. Ozpin turned towards the nearby window with a heavy sigh that revealed how weighty a topic the champion had hit upon. "Sadly, yes. That seems to be the only option available to us."

"Then why haven't we started yet?" There was a slight edge in Riven's voice now. There was a problem here, and it needed to be solved immediately. "If their energy is so precious, then why do you let them waste it on petty food fights? They need to start training NOW. We don't have time to play around."

A twitch of the headmaster's eyelid told her that she was right on point again. Still, his calm tone slowed down the conversation again. "We are facing a massive foe, with strength that none of us can comprehend, and plans for which we know not the end result." He spoke simply and bluntly, ensuring that his words could not be misunderstood. "In order to face it, we will need to be more than simply the sum of our two forces. These students will need to grow and learn at a much greater pace than any of us will like."

Again, Prof. Ozpin motioned to Riven's new friends who had gone back to throwing food into each others' mouths from increasingly ridiculous ranges. "The children especially will no doubt suffer great trauma. After all of this is over, they will have lost what little childhood they had, which is why I believe they deserve this time more than any of us."

This struck a nerve in Riven. Back in Noxus, she hadn't been given a childhood. Anyone who played around with the idea of innocence was quickly exploited and left out in the streets so they could learn the harsh lesson of Noxian life. It was time this senile headmaster learned the same.

Still, she kept her words from being too confrontational. Getting angry was not enough reason to go biting off the Headmaster's head just yet. "That doesn't matter." she said quietly, "They'll either learn to fight, or die trying. Childish whimsy like this just hurts their chances."

At this, Ozpin simply shook his head. "You are partially correct; they must learn quickly, but there are far more important things than just that."

"Like what? I may not know a lot about our enemy, but I do know that the Void isn't stupid. They wouldn't go out of their way to target this place in secret unless it held a HUGE tactical advantage."

Ozpin nodded this time, still not looking at her. "That much is certain, and a loss here would be catastrophic, but we have other priorities that must be considered."

At this, Riven simply couldn't take it anymore. Forget politeness and niceties, this scrub needed to learn some common sense. "No we DON'T! This is a _war_! Everyone is going to have to make sacrifices. There are going to be losses, but we will stay strong. 'Cause in a war, all that matters is what you can do to your enemies, and what you can stop them from doing to you."

That last sentence, a quote from one of her old commanders, was said with such power that Ozpin faced her directly. His face no longer showed any of the pain of exhaustion or gloom of helplessness. Instead, it bore a look of pure determination. No anger, pity, or frustration; just the power of a lesson that needed to be learned. Riven had overstepped a boundary, and she knew it, but the champion wasn't backing down. Beacon may have had strong students, but it knew nothing of true Noxian strength.

"There is far more at stake here than the war." He said with stern finality. "What remains after the battle is even more important than the combat itself. I'm sure a veteran like you would know."

At this, all of Riven's determination crumbled. The headmaster had known exactly what her reasoning was and had soundly crushed it. There was no malice in his words, but they struck Riven nonetheless. In an instant, images flew to the surface of her mind, and she fell to her hands and knees.

The world fell away around her. The dining hall, the headmaster, and the sunlight all faded, leaving only the small pad of floor that Riven knelt on, and a crushing darkness all around. Memories sped past at a rapid pace, each one sending a spike of pain through her chest as the familiar scene took shape around her.

_The battle was over. The few other survivors had fled, though they would soon die anyway from their wounds. The ground was covered in a thick layer of blood and hazardous chemicals, with the occasional corroded weapon reaching above the surface. Her own sword lay shattered nearby, and the remaining pieces drifted past, pushed on the weak current of red liquid. Everything was wrong. There should be no wasteland. The war should be over. This terror that had been unleashed was the opposite of everything Noxus stood for, and yet the melters were the only things in the valley that remained standing._

_So much death..._

_Riven looked up to the sky, if only so that she could look away from the hell she had entered and to the heaven she had been promised. The sun was almost entirely blocked out by a dark red haze, steadily darkened by the acrid smoke rising off the small piles of bodies. The few that rose out of the red bog were slowly burning away. Every other living thing around was long dead, and any beauty this place once held was gone now, torn apart by the rampage of destruction. All that remained was Riven and the abandoned Melters, which towered over the landscape as monuments of destruction._

Slowly, the image faded. The memory fell back to its place in the back of Riven's mind, but the pain stayed. A dull ache in her chest made sure that even now that she could breathe, it still wouldn't be easy.

So she knelt on the ground, air flowing in and out of her lungs in shaky gasps. The vision hadn't lasted long, but it had still been enough to make her stomach churn. Trying to collect herself, Riven closed her mouth to normalize her breathing. According to her lessons, the rest would follow. And it did. Ever so slowly, her heart rate slowed and the hysterics began to die down.

Eventually, Riven was pulled back to the present when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned to see Ruby crouched next to her, apparently having left her team to check on her new friend. The girl's eyes filled with worry, and instead of her usual wide smile, her bottom lip was quivering ever so slightly. When she spoke, her voice was barely more than a whisper.

"Riven... What's wrong?"

In response, the champion simply hung her head and squeezed her eyes shut.

_Just ignore her. _She said to herself,_ Just ignore her like everyone else. You've responded to that question too many times, and no good ever comes out of it._

_Not even here? _Whispered a voice in the back of her mind, _Didn't you say this was a fresh start? And yet here you are falling back on old coping habits._

_What else am I supposed to do?_

_Let her in._ The voice responded, _Isn't Ruby your friend? She wants to help, so just let her._

The Exile took the duration of a deep breath to make a decision. "Lots of things Ruby." She said slowly, "There's too much that's broken, and I don't think it can be fixed."

_Leave it at that. I'm not going to spill years of pain and suffering onto this… this child. She doesn't need to hear it and telling her wouldn't help anyone._

"Yes it can." The red leader said firmly, "Never let anyone tell you something is impossible." Her voice was shaking, and there was a pair of tears sliding towards her chin, but her tone showed infinite confidence in her statement.

_She really believes that doesn't she?_ Riven thought in disbelief, _She's so naïve, even for someone as childish as her. You are going to learn some harsh lessons in the next few months Ruby._

After a couple seconds of eye contact, Ruby wrapped her arms around her new friend and pulled her into a gentle hug.

"Don't lose hope Riven."

Instead of returning the embrace, Riven simply closed her eyes and took another deep breath. She had heard many inspirational words from people that said they sympathized, but it never got through. Every time, it was just an empty phrase they'd heard from someone in their village, and they'd brought up because they felt like being nice to someone at the time.

There were a few times when she had received helpful advice from people who knew what they were talking about. Riven was still actively trying to work on the meditation techniques Master Yi had recommended for her, and Lee Sin had been especially helpful at helping to re-examine her goals and morals. However ironic it might be that Riven had received the most help from those whose homeland she'd ravaged, she still made sure they knew how thankful she was.

There were also those few people out there who were genuinely capable of empathizing with The Exile. Especially in the League of Legends, there were champions who had gone through similarly traumatizing ordeals. These were the interactions that Riven treasured the most. They let her know that, for what it was worth, she wasn't alone in her suffering.

This though, was neither. Ruby was simply a small innocent child who was too naïve to know the pain she was trying to heal. All she was giving was one of a small pool of token quotes and lines that were supposed to inspire her. Most of the time, Riven just ignored these comments. Occasionally she would be in an especially bad mood and respond to the attempted charity with hostility, but she could never quite bring herself to be thankful for such an empty act.

Luckily, Ozpin seemed to notice her stance on the matter and answered the young leader himself. "Thank you Ruby. Now, why don't you go back to regain control of your team? Don't worry, Riven will be fine from here."

Ruby stepped back with an unsure expression. That expression changed to a tentative smile when Ozpin gave her a subtle nod, and she turned to rejoin her team. Before she left though, she looked back at the champion who was still on the floor.

"Remember, we're here for you Riven."

A long silence followed those words. Riven didn't move from her position on the floor, but the headmaster turned to look at his students again. After a long sip form his mug, Ozpin spoke again.

"Please accept my apologies." He said softly, still not looking at the Exile, "The summoners told me that you had seen hardship and betrayal. They did not tell me how bad it was."

Riven took a deep breath but said nothing. This wasn't the first time someone had apologized for underestimating the ghosts of her past, and it sure wouldn't be the last with all the new faces she saw.

There had been a time when she would have reacted violently to a misstep like that. Back when her wounds were still festering, when her spirit was still in fragments.

_And why is that not the case here?_ chirped the voice in her head once more, _What was it that cleaned and bound the wounds?_

Riven didn't have to think much for her response. She had answered this question several times before._ The forgiveness of Ionia and the openness of acquaintance. What they have done for me, I shall never forget._

_And yet you continue to deny the aid and acquaintance of those who would gladly give it to you._

_Because my wounds were healed by masters of the mind and spirit. Are you suggesting that Ruby has deeper and wiser insights than Karma?_

The voice remained silent in response. Riven almost wished it wasn't. All alone in this world full of people, she could use an excuse to make a genuine friend. However, with no further reason to dwell, Riven returned her attention to the headmaster, who continued unperturbed by her mental tangent.

"You have seen the horrible consequences of victory at all costs. You know the pain it brings, though you've tried to forget it."

The champion clenched her fists and bit down hard on her lower lip in order to stop another flashback. This man was trying her patience, but meditation practice paid off and Riven remained silent. While waiting for his guest's attention to return, Ozpin stepped past her and stood facing the students. His voice was grim, yet stern, and he gripped his cane as though afraid he might fall over without it.

"These children will face unprecedented hardships in the coming months." He said as Riven stood to join him, "The horrors of war will put a strain on their minds that will break many. They will doubt themselves, and they will doubt each other."

There was a moment's pause, during which Yang used a tray to hit an apple that Nora had pitched to her. The headmaster's voice dropped to a low octave when he continued, ever in contrast to the scene unfolding in front of them. "In the chaos, there will be betrayal, cowardice, and panic. With our reliance on each other, any who fall will drag more down with them, and all of our effort will have been for nothing."

At this, he straightened up again and turned his head to look at Riven. "They will be the defenders of the world when we need them to be, but for now they are still children." He repeated, "So we should let them play the part while they still have the chance."

_I don't like this. It feels too much like harboring weakness. There's too much arrogance here. These students think they're on top of the world, and that's going to hurt them more than anything once the real fighting breaks out. They need to learn to toughen up, even if they're children…_

_…Especially because they're children…_

_Still, he does have a point, and he knows these kids better than I do. I don't like it, but I'll play along… For now…_

Ozpin waited a moment while Riven made her decision, and her expression upon meeting his eyes told the headmaster all he needed to know. Seeing no reason to dwell, he instead decided to move on.

After all, he had news to deliver. "On a happier note, the reason I'm here in the first place is to tell you that the summoners have established a stable link to Valoran. They are starting to bring over a few more champions, and they said there was one in particular that you would want to catch up with."

* * *

**AN: Aaand there's the drama. I hope that wasn't too much/little for you.**

**Yes, I realize that the story POV has stayed a bit too long on the League folks (okay just Riven then), but the rest of the story should balance that out. You're going to see a good variety of champions and the RWBYJNPR crew will get plenty of screen time.**

**I also should give the REAL reason this chapter took so long: NO ONE LEFT ANY REVIEWS! Okay, that's not entirely true. There were two, one of which was from my beta reader. THAT'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH!**

**In all seriousness though, you may not realize it, but I do actually need your reviews to make this good. Not only does it tell me whether or not I've messed up (were the ch.5 fight scenes good or bad? PLEASE! I need to know!), but they are also the chocolate-frosted carrot on a stick that motivates me to write.**

**So PLEASE leave a review for either this chapter or the last. Even if it's just a quick good/bad, awesome/awful, praise/puke review, it would do wonders. I am not above rewriting this chapter (or the previous) if you guys have a good point.**

**Come on, the review box is right there.**


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